Life of Luther

LIFE OF LUTHBB

LUTHER.
(From a Portrait by Cranach in the Town Church at Weimar.)

LIFE OF LUTHER

BT

JULIUS KOSTLIN

i

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS from AUTHENTIC SOURCES

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1911

AUTffOR *S D ED7CA TION

TO

MY DEAR WIFE
PAULINE

WITH THE WORDS OF LUTHER

'God's highest gift on earth is to have a pious,
cheerful, God-fearing, home-keeping wife

AUTHOE'S PEEFACE.

-to*-

No German has ever influenced so powerfully as Luther
the religious life, and, through it, the whole history, of his
people ; none has ever reflected so faithfully, in his whole
personal character and conduct, the peculiar features of
that life and history, and been enabled by that very means
to render us a service so effectual and so popular. If we
recall to fresh life and remembrance the great men of
past ages, we Germans shall always put Luther in the
van : for us Protestants, the object of our love and venera-
tion, who win not prevent, however, or prejudice the most
candid historical inquiry; for others, a rock of offence,
whom even slander and falsehood will never overcome.

I have already in my larger work, * Martin Luther : his
Life and Writings,' 2 vols., 1875, put together all the
materials available for that subject, together with the
necessary references, historical and critical, and have
endeavoured to explain and illustrate at length the subject
matter of his various writings. I now offer this sketch

x AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

of his life to the wide circle of what are called educated
German readers. For further explanations and proofs of
statements herein contained I would refer them to my
larger work. Further investigation has prompted me to
make some alterations, but only a few, in matters of
detail.

For the illustrations I beg to express my warm thanks,
and those of the publisher, to the friends who have kindly
assisted us in the work.

J. KOSTLIN,

Professor at the University of Halle -Wittenberg.

Oct. 31, 1881, the anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses.

CONTENTS.

PAET I.

LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, UP TO HIS
ENTERING THE CONVENT.— 1483-1505.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Birth and Parentage 1

II. Childhood and School-days 10

III. Student-days at Erfurt and Entry into the Convent. — 1501-

1505 28

PAET II.

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR, UNTIL
HIS ENTRY ON THE WAR OF REFORMATION.
—1505-1517.

L At the Convent at Erfurt, till 1508 40

II. Call to Wittenberg. Journey to Eome 57

III. Luther as Theological Teacher, to 1517 64

PAET in.

THE BREACH WITH ROME, UP TO THE DIET
OF WORMS.— 1517-1521.

I. The Ninety-five Theses 82

II. The Controversy concerning Indulgences 95

III. Luther at Augsburg before Caietan. Appeal to a Council . 108

xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTKR PAGE

IV. Miltitz and the Disputation at Leipzig, with its Results . . 122

V. Luther's further Work, Writings, and Inward Progress until

1520 150

VI. Alliance with the Humanists and Nobility 168

VII. Crisis of Secession : Luther's Works — to the Christian Nobility

of the German Nation, and on the Babylonian Captivity . 188

VIII. The Bull of Excommunication, and Luther's Reply . . . 203

IX. The Diet of Worms 222

PART IV.

FROM THE DIET OF WORMS TO THE PEA-

S ANTS' WAR AND LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.

I. Luther at the Wartburg, to his Visit to Wittenberg in 1521 . 246

II. Luther's further Sojourn at the Wartburg, and his Return to

Wittenberg, 1522 263

III. Luther's Reappearance and fresh Labours at Wittenberg, 1522 273

IV. Luther and his anti-Catholic work of Reformation, up to 1525 286
V. The Reformer against the Fanatics and Peasants, up to 1525 304

VI. Luther's Marriage 325

PART V.

LUTHER AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
CHURCH, TO THE FIRST RELIGIOUS PEACE.
—1525-1532.

I. Survey ^36

II. Continued Labours and Personal Life 344

III. Erasmus and Henry VIII. Controversy with Zwingli and his

Followers, up to 1528 372

CONTENTS. xiii

OTAPTER PAGE

IV. Church Divisions in Germany. War with the Turks. The

Conference at Marburg, 1529 384

V. The Diet of Augsburg, and Luther at Coburg, 1530 . . . 402

VI. From the Diet of Augsburg to the Eeligious Peace of Nurem-
berg, 1532. Death of the Elector John . . - .427

PAKT VI.

FROM THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG
TO THE DEATH OF LUTHER.

I. Luther under John Frederick 443

II. Negotiations respecting a Council and Union among the Pro-
testants. The Legate Vergerius, 1535. The Wittenberg
Concord, 1536 . .462

III. Negotiations respecting a Council and Union among the Pro-

testants (continued). The Meeting at Schmalkald, 1537. 475
Peace with the Swiss ........

IV. Other Labours and Proceedings, 1533-39. The Archbishop

Albert and Schonitz. Agricola 489

V. Luther and the Progress and Internal Troubles of Protes-
tantism, 1538-41 502

VI. Luther and the Progress and Internal Troubles of Protes-
tantism (continued), 1541-44 . . . . • . 518

VII. Luther's Later Life ; Domestic and Personal . . 534

VIII. Luther's Last Year and Death 560

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. PAGE

Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in the Town Church at
Weimar) Frontispiece

1. Coat of Arms 2

2. Hans Luther 6

3. Margaret Luther 7

4. Luther's Cell at Erfurt 44

5. Staupitz. (From the Portrait in St. Peter's Convent at Salzburg) 52

6. Title and Preface of Penitential Psalms 75

7. Spalatin. (From L. Cranach's Portrait) . , . . .77

8. Erasmus. (From the Portrait by A. Diirer) 79

9. Leo X. (From his Portrait by Raphael) 83

10. The Archrishop Alrert. (From Dtirer's engraving) . . . 85

11. Title-page of a Pamphlet written at the beginning of the

Reformation, with an Illustration showing the Sale of Indul-
gences ...... 87

12. The Castle Church. (From the Wittenberg Book of Relics,

1509) 90

13. The Emperor Maximilian. (From his Portrait by Albert Diirer) 128

14. Duke George of Saxony. (From an old woodcut) . . . 134

15. Luther. (From an engraving of Cranach, in 1520) . . . . 140

16. Dr. John Eck. (From an old woodcut) 142

17. Melancthon. (From a Portrait by Diirer) 153

18. Lucas Cranach. (From a Portrait by himself) .... 157

19. W. Pirkheimer. (From a Portrait by Albert Diirer) . . . 173

20. Ulrich von Hutten. (From an old woodcut) .... 177

21. Francis von Sickingen. (From an old engraving) . • • . 181

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

FIG. PAGB

22. Title-page of the second edition of Luther's Treatise to the

Christian Nobility of the German Nation .... 197

23. Title-page, slightly reduced, of the original Tract ' On the Liberty

of a Christian Man ' 207

24. Charles V. (From an engraving by B. Beham, in 1531) . . 225

25. Luther. (From an engraving by Cranach, in 1521) . . . . 237

26. Luther as " Squire George." (From a woodcut by Cranach) . 247

27. Bugenhagen. (From a picture by Cranach in his album, at

Berlin, 1543) 278

28. Munzer. (From an old woodcut) 323

29. Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1525.) At Wittenberg . 332

30. Catharine von Bora, Luther's wife. (From a Portrait by

Cranach about 1525.) At Berlin 333

31. Luther's King from Catharine 334

32. Luther's Double Ring 334

33. The Saxon Electors, Frederick the "Wise, John, and John

Frederick. (From a Picture by Cranach.^ At Nuremberg . 338

34. Facsimile of Frederick's signature 339

35. Philip of Hesse. (From a woodcut of Brosamer) . . . 341

36. Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528.) At Berlin . . 362

37. Luther's Wife. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528.) At

Berlin 363

38. Zwingli. (From an old engraving) 375

39. Facsimile of the Superscription and Signature to the Mar-

burg Articles 397

40. Veit Dietrich, as Pastor of Nuremberg. (From an old woodcut) 406

41. Luther's Seal. (Taken from letters written in 1517) . . . 416

42. Luther's Coat of Arms. (From old prints) .... 416

43. Butzer. (From the old original woodcut of Beusner) . . . 460

44. Agricola. (From a miniature Portrait by Cranach, in the Uni-

versity Album at Wittenberg, 1531) 497

45. Jonas. (From a Portrait by Cranach, in his Album at Berlin,

1543) 519

46. Amsdorf. (From an old woodcut) 522

47. Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach, in his Album, at Berlin) 535

48. Wittenberg. (From an old engraving) 537

49. The " Luther-House " (previously the Convent), before its re-

cent restoration 538

50. Luther's Boom 539

51. Luther's Daughter 4Lene.' (From Cranach 's Portrait) . . 545

52. Door of Luther's House at Wittenberg 549

xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. PAGE

53. Mathesius. (From an old woodcut) 555

54. Luther in 1546. (From a woodcut of Cranach) . ., . 570

55. Jonas' Glass 571

56. Address of Luther's Letter of February 7 . . . . 575

57. Luther after Death. (From a Picture ascribed to Cranach) . 579

58. Cast of Luther after Death. (At Halle) 580

LUTHEB'S LIFE.

PAET I.

LUTHEK'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH UP TO HIS
ENTERING THE CONVENT.— 1483-1505.

CHAPTEK I.

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.

On the 10th of November, 1483, their first child was born to
a young couple, Hans and Margaret Luder, at Eisleben, in
Saxony, where the former earned his living as a miner. That
child was Martin Luther.

His parents had shortly before removed thither from
Mohra, the old home of his family. This place, called in
old records More and More, lies among the low hills where
the Thuringian chain of wooded heights runs out westwards
towards the valley of the Werra, about eight miles south of
Eisenach, and four miles north of Salzungen, close to the
railway which now connects these two towns. Luther thus
comes from the very centre of Germany. The ruler there
was the Elector of Saxony.

Mohra was an insignificant village, without even a
priest of its own, and with only a chapel affiliated to the
church of the neighbouring parish. The population con-
sisted for the most part of independent peasants, with

B

2 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

bouse and farmstead, cattle and horses. Mining, more-
over, was being carried on there in the fifteenth century,
and copper was being discovered in the copper schist, of
which the names of Schieferhalden and Schlackenhaufen
still survive to remind us. The soil was not very favourable
for agriculture, and consisted partly of moorland, which gave
the place its name. Those peasants who possessed land
were obliged to work extremely hard. They were a strong
and sturdy race.

From this peasantry sprang Luther. ' I am a pea-
sant's son,' he said once to Melancthon in conversation.
' My father, grandfather — all my ancestors were thorough
peasants.'

His father's relations were to be found in several
families and houses in Mohra, and even scattered in the
country around. The name was then written Luder, and
also Ludher, Luder, and Leuder. We find the name of
Luther for the first time as that of Martin Luther, the
Professor at Wittemberg, shortly before he entered on his
war of Reformation, and from him it was adopted by the
other branches of the family. Originally it was
not a surname, but a Christian name, identical
with Lothar, which signifies one renowned in
battle. A very singular coat of arms, consist-
F^71# ing of a cross-bow, with a rose on each side,
n. t had been handed down through, no doubt,

Coat of arms. . .

many generations in the family, and is to be

seen on the seal of Luther's brother James. The origin
of these arms is unknown ; the device leads one to con-
clude that the family must have blended with another
by intermarriage, or by succeeding to its property. Con-
temporaneous records exist to show how conspicuously
the relatives of Luther, at Mohra and in the district,
shared the sturdy character of the local peasantry, always
ready for self-help, and equally ready for fisticuffs. Firmly
and resolutely, for many generations, and amidst grievous

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 3

persecutions and disorders, such as visited Mohra in
particular during the Thirty Years' War, this race main-
tained its ground. Three families of Luther exist there at
this day, who are all engaged in agriculture ; and a striking
likeness to the features of Martin Luther may still be
traced in many of his descendants, and even in other in-
habitants of Mohra. Not less remarkable, as noted by
one who is familiar with the present people of the place,
are the depth of feeling and strong common sense which
distinguish them, in general, to this day. The house in
which Luther's grandfather lived, or rather that which was
afterwards built on the site, can still, it is believed, but not
with certainty, be identified. Near this house stands now
a statue of Luther in bronze.

At Mohra, then, Luther's father, Hans, had grown up to
manhood. His grandfather's name was Henry, but of him
we hear nothing during Luther's time. His grandmother
died in 1521. His mother's maiden name was Ziegler ; we
afterwards find relations of hers at Eisenach ; the other old
account, which made her maiden name Linclemann, pro-
bably originated from confusing her with Luther's grand-
mother.

What brought Hans to Eisleben was the copper mining,
which here, and especially in the county of Mansfeld, to
which Eisleben belonged, had prospered to an extent never
known around Mohra, and was even then in full swing of
activity. At Eisleben, the miners' settlements soon formed
two new quarters of the town. Hans had, as we know, two
brothers, and very possibly there were more of the family,
so that the paternal inheritance had to be divided. He
was evidently the eldest of the brothers, of whom one, Heinz,
or Henry, who owned a farm of his own, was still living in
1540, ten years after the death of Hans. But at Mohra
the law of primogeniture, which vests the possession of the
land in the eldest son, was not recognised ; either the pro-
perty was equally divided, or, as was customary in other

b2

4 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

parts of the country, the estate fell to the share of the
youngest. This custom was referred to in after years by
Luther in his remark that in this world, according to civil
law, the youngest son is the heir of his father's house.

We must not omit to notice the other reasons which
have been assigned for his leaving his old home. It has
been repeatedly asserted, in recent times, and even by Pro-
testant writers, that the father of our great Keformer had
sought to escape the consequences of a crime committed by
him at Mohra. The matter stands thus : In Luther's life-
time his Catholic opponent Witzel happened to call out to
Jonas, a friend of Luther's, in the heat of a quarrel, ' I
might call the father of your Luther a murderer.' Twenty
years later the anonymous author of a polemical work
which appeared at Paris actually calls the Keformer ' the
son of the Mohra assassin.' With these exceptions, not a
trace of any story of this kind, in the writings of either
friend or foe, can be found in that or in the following cen-
tury. It was at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
in an official report on mining at Mohra, that the story,
evidently based on oral tradition, assumed all at once a
more definite shape ; the statement being that Luther's
father had accidentally killed a peasant, who was mind-
ing some horses grazing. This story has been told to
travellers in our own time by people of Mohra, who have
gone so far as to point out the fatal meadow. We are
forced to notice it, not, indeed, as being in the least
authenticated, but simply on account of the authority
recently claimed for the tradition. For it is plain that
what is now a matter of hearsay at Mohra was a story
wholly unknown there not many years ago, was first
introduced by strangers, and has since met with several
variations at their hands. The idea of a criminal flying
from Mohra to Mansfeld, which was only a few miles off,
and was equally subject to the Elector of Saxony, is absurd,
and in this case is strangely inconsistent with the honour-

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 5

able position soon attained, as we shall see, by Hans Luther
himself at Mansfeld. Moreover, the very fact that Wit z el's
spiteful remark was long known to Luther's enemies,
coupled with the fact that they never turned it to account,
shows plainly how little they ventured to make it a matter
of serious reproach. Luther during his lifetime had to
hear from them that his father was a Bohemian heretic,
his mother a loose woman, employed at the baths, and he
himself a changeling, born of his mother and the Devil.
How triumphantly would they have talked about the murder
or manslaughter committed by his father, had the charge
admitted of proof ! Whatever occurrence may have given
rise to such a story, we have no right to ascribe it either
to any fault or any crime of the father. More on this sub-
ject it is needless to add ; the two strange statements we
have mentioned do not attempt to establish any definite
connection between the supposed crime and the removal to
Eisleben.

The day, and even the very hour, when her first-born
came into the world, Luther's mother carefully treasured
in her mind. It was between eleven and twelve o'clock at
night. Agreeably to the custom of the time, he was
baptised in the Church of St. Peter the next day. It was
the feast of St. Martin, and he was called after that saint.
Tradition still identifies the house where he was born ; it
stands in the lower part of the town, close to St. Peter's
Church. Several conflagrations, which devastated Eislebenj
have left it undestroyed. But of the original building only
the walls of the ground-floor remain : within these there is a
room facing the street, which is pointed out as the one
where Luther first saw the light. The church was rebuilt
soon after his birth, and was then called after St. Peter and
St. Paul ; the present font still retains, it is said, some
portions of the old one.

When the child was six months old, his parents removed
to the town of Mansfeld, about six miles off. So great

6 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

was the number of the miners who were then crowding
to Eisleben, the most important place in the county, that
we can well understand how Luther's father failed there
to realise his expectations, and went in search of better
prospects to the other capital of the rich mining district.
Here, at Mansfeld, or, more strictly, at Lower Mansfeld,

Fig. 2.— Hans Luther.

as it is called, from its position, and to distinguish it from
Cloister-Mansfeld, he came among a people whose whole
life and labour were devoted to mining. The town itself
lay on the banks of a stream, inclosed by hills, on the edge
of the Harz country. Above it towered the stately castle
of the Counts, to whom the place belonged. The character

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 7

of the scenery is more severe, and the air harsher than in
the neighbourhood of Mohra. Luther himself called his
Mansfeld countrymen sons of the Harz. In the main,
these Harz people are much rougher than the Thuringians.
Here also, at first, Luther's parents found it a hard
struggle to get on. ' My father,* said the Reformer, " was a

Fig. 3. — Margabet Luther.

poor miner ; my mother carried in all the wood upon her
back ; they worked the flesh off then bones to bring us up :
no one nowadays would ever have such endurance. It must
not, however, be forgotten that carrying wood in these days
was less a sign of poverty than now. Gradually their affairs
improved. The whole working of the mines belonged to

8 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

the Counts, and they leased out single portions, called
smelting furnaces, sometimes for lives, sometimes for a
term of years. Hans Luther succeeded in obtaining two
furnaces, though only on a lease of years. He must have
risen in the esteem of his town-fellows even more rapidly
than in outward prosperity.

The magistracy of the town consisted of a bailiff, the
chief landowners, and four of the community. Among
these four Hans Luther appears in a public document as
early as 1491. His children were numerous enough to
cause him constant anxiety for their maintenance and
education : there were at least seven of them, for we know
of three brothers and three sisters of the Eeformer. The
Luther family never rose to be one of the rich families of
Mansfeld, who possessed furnaces by inheritance, and in
time became landowners ; but they associated with them,
and in some cases numbered them among their intimate
friends. The old Hans was also personally known to his
Counts, and was much esteemed by them. In 1520 the
Eeformer publicly appealed to their personal acquaintance
with his father and himself, against the slanders circulated
about his origin. Hans, in course of time, bought himself
a substantial dwelling-house in the principal street of the
town. A small portion of it remains standing to this day.
There is still to be seen a gateway, with a well-built arch of
sandstone, which bears the Luther arms of cross-bow and
roses, and the inscription J.L. 1530. This was, no doubt,
the work of James Luther, in the year when his father Hans
died, and he took possession of the property. It is only
quite recently that the stone has so far decayed as to cause
the arms and part of the inscription to peel off.

The earliest personal accounts that we have of Luther's
parents, date from the time when they already shared in
the honour and renown acquired by their son. They fre-
quently visited him at Wittenberg, and moved with simple
dignity among his friends. The father, in particular,

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 9

Melancthcm describes as a man, who, by purity of character
and cod duct, won for himself universal affection and
esteem. Of the mother he says that the worthy woman,
amongst other virtues, was distinguished above all for her
modesty, her fear of God, and her constant communion
with God in prayer. Luther's friend, the Court-preacher
Spalatin, spoke of her as a rare and exemplary woman.
As regards their personal appearance, the Swiss Kessler
describes them in 1522 as small and short persons, far
surpassed by their son Martin in height and build; he
adds, also, that they were dark-complexioned. Five years
later their portraits were painted by Lucas Cranach : these
are now to be seen in the Wartburg, and are the only ones
of this couple which we possess.1 In these portraits, the
features of both the parents have a certain hardness ; they
indicate severe toil during a long life. At the same time,
the mouth and eyes of the father wear an intelligent, lively,
energetic, and clever expression. He has also, as his son
Martin observed, retained to old age a ' strong and hardy
frame.' The mother looks more wearied by life, but
resigned, quiet, and meditative. Her thin face, with its
large bones, presents a mixture of mildness and gravity.
Spalatin was amazed, on seeing her for the first time in
1522, how much Luther resembled her in bearing and
features. Indeed, a certain likeness is observable between
him and her portrait, in the eyes and the lower part of the
face. At the same time, from what is known of the appear-
ance of the Luthers who lived afterwards at Mohra, he
must also have resembled his father's family.

1 Strange to say, subsequently and even in our own days, a portrait of
Martin Luther's wife in her old age has been mistaken for one of his
mother.

io LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

CHAPTER II.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS.

As to the childhood of Martin Luther, and his further
growth and mental development, at Mansfeld and else-
where, we have absolutely no information from others to
enlighten us. For this portion of his life we can only
avail ourselves of occasional and isolated remarks of his
own, partly met with in his writings, partly culled from his
lips by Melancthon, or his physician Eatzeberger, or his
pupil Mathesius, or other friends, and by them recorded
for the benefit of posterity. These remarks are very im-
perfect, but are significant enough to enable us to under-
stand the direction which his inner life had taken, and
which prepared him for his future calling. Nor less
significant is the fact that those opponents who, from the
commencement of his war with the Church, tracked out
his origin, and sought therein for evidence to his detriment,
have failed, for their part, to contribute anything new
whatever to the history of his childhood and youth, al-
though, as the Reformer, he had plenty of enemies at his
own and his parents' home, and several of the Counts of
Mansfeld, in particular, continued in the Romish Church.
There was nothing, therefore, dark or discreditable, at any
rate, to be found attaching either to his home or to his
own youth.

It is said that childhood is a Paradise. Luther in after
years found it joyful and edifying to contemplate the
happiness of those little ones who know neither the cares
of daily life nor the troubles of the soul, and enjoy with

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. \\

light hearts the good thing which God has given them.
But in his own reminiscences of life, so far as he has given
them, no such sunny childhood is reflected. The hard
time, which his parents at first had to struggle through at
Mansfeld, had to be shared in by the children, and the lot
fell most hardly on the eldest. As the former spent their
days in hard toil, and persevered in it with unflinching
severity, the tone of the house was unusually earnest and
severe. The upright, honourable, industrious father was
honestly resolved to make a useful man of his son, and
enable him to rise higher than himself. He strictly main-
tained at all times his paternal authority. After his death,
Martin recorded, in touching language, instances of his
father's love, and the sweet intercourse he was permitted
to have with him. But it is not surprising, if, at the period
of childhood, so peculiarly in need of tender affection, the
severity of the father was felt rather too much. He was
once, as he tells us, so severely flogged by his father that
he fled from him, and bore him a temporary grudge. Luther,
in speaking of the discipline of children, has even quoted
his mother as an example of the way in which parents,
with the best intentions, are apt to go too far in punishing,
and forget to pay due attention to the peculiarities of each
child. His mother, he said, once whipped him till the blood
came, for having taken a paltry little nut. He adds, that,
in punishing children, the apple should be placed beside
the rod, and they should not be chastised for an offence
about nuts or cherries as if they had broken open a
money-box. His parents, he acknowledged, had meant it
for the very best, but they had kept him, nevertheless,
so strictly that he had become shy and timid. Theirs,
however, was not that unloving severity which blunts the
spirit of a child, and leads to artfulness and deceit. Their
strictness, well intended, and proceeding from a genuine
moral earnestness of purpose, furthered in him a strictness
and tenderness of conscience, which then and in after years

12 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

made him deeply and keenly sensitive of every fault com«
mitted in the eyes of God ; a sensitiveness, indeed, which,
so far from relieving him of fear, made him apprehensive on
account of sins that existed only in his imagination- It
was a later consequence of this discipline, as Luther him-
self informs us, that he took refuge in a convent. He adds,
at the same time, that it is better not to spare the rod
with children even from the very cradle, than to let them
grow up without any punishment at all ; and that it is
pure mercy to young folk to bend their wills, even though it
eosts labour and trouble, and leads to threats and blows.

We have a reference by Luther to the lessons he learned
in childhood from his experience of poverty at home, in his
remarks in later life, on the sons of poor men, who by
sheer hard work raise themselves from obscurity, and have
much to endure, and no time to strut and swagger, but
must be humble and learn to be silent and to trust in God,
and to whom God also has given good sound heads.

As to Luther's relations with his brothers and sisters we
have the testimony of one who knew the household at
Mansfeld, and particularly his brother James, that from
childhood they were those of brotherly companionship,
and that from his mother's own account he had exercised
a governing influence both by word and deed on the good
conduct of the younger members of the family.

His father must have taken him to school at a very
early age. Long after, in fact only two years before his
death, he noted down in the Bible of a ' good old friend,'
Emler, a townsman of Mansfeld, his recollection how, more
than once, Emler, as the elder, had carried him, still a
weakly child, to and from school ; a proof, not indeed, as a
Catholic opponent of the next century imagined, that it
was necessary to compel the boy to go to school, but that
he was still of an age to benefit by being carried. The
school-house, of which the lower portion still remains, stood
at the upper end of the little town, part of which runs

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 13

with steep streets up the hill. The children there were
taught not only reading and writing, but also the rudiments
of Latin, though doubtless in a very clumsy and mechanical
fashion. From his experience of the teaching here, Luther
speaks in later years of the vexations and torments with
declining and conjugating and other tasks which school
children in his youth had to undergo. The severity he
there met with from his teacher was a very different thing
from the strictness of his parents. Schoolmasters, he says,
in those days were tyrants and executioners, the schools
were prisons and hells, and in spite of blows, trembling,
fear, and misery, nothing was ever taught. He had been
whipped, he tells us, fifteen times one morning, without any
fault of his own, having been called on to repeat what he
had never been taught.

At this school he remained till he was fourteen, when
his father resolved to send him to a better and higher-class
place of education. He chose for that purpose Magdeburg ;
but what particular school he attended is not known. His
friend Mathesius tells us that the town-school there was
' far renowned above many others.' Luther himself says
that he went to school with the Null-brethren. These Null-
brethren or Noll-brethren, as they were called, were a
brotherhood of pious clergymen and laymen, who had com-
bined together, but without taking any vows, to promote
among themselves the salvation of their souls and the
practice of a godly life, and to labour at the same time
for the social and moral welfare of the people, by preaching
the Word of God, by instruction, and by spiritual ministra-
tion. They undertook in particular the care of youth.
They were, moreover, the chief originators of the great
movement in Germany, at that time, for promoting in-
tellectual culture, and reviving the treasures of ancient
Eoman and Greek literature. Since 1488 a colony of them
had existed at Magdeburg, which had come from Hildesheim,
one of their head-quarters. As there is no evidence of their

14 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

having had a school of their own at Magdeburg, they may
have devoted their services to the town-school. Thither,
then, Hans Luther sent his eldest son in 1497. The idea
had probably been suggested by Peter Reinicke, the overseer
of the mines, who had a son there. With this son John,
who afterwards rose to an important office in the mines at
Mansfeld, Martin Luther contracted a lifelong friendship.
Hans, however, only let his son remain one year at
Magdeburg, and then sent him to school at Eisenach.
"Whether he was induced to make this change by finding
his expectations of the school not sufficiently realised, or
whether other reasons, possibly those regarding a cheaper
maintenance of his son, may have determined him in the
matter, there is no evidence to show. What strikes one
here only is his zeal for the better education of his son.

Ratzeberger is the only one who tells us of an incident
he heard of Luther from his own lips, during his stay at
Magdeburg, and this was one which, as a physician, he
relates with interest. Luther, it happened, was lying sick
of a burning fever, and tormented with thirst, and in the
heat of the fever they refused him drink. So one
Friday, when the people of the house had gone to church,
and left him alone, he, no longer able to endure the thirst,
crawled off on hands and feet to the kitchen, where he
drank off with great avidity a jug of cold water. He could
reach his room again, but having done so he fell into a deep
sleep, and on waking the fever had left him.

The maintenance his father was able to afford him was
not sufficient to cover the expenses of his board and lodging
as well as of his schooling, either at Magdeburg or after-
wards at Eisenach. He was obliged to help himself after
the manner of poor scholars, who, as he tells us, went
about from door to door collecting small gifts or doles by
singing hymns. ' I myself,' he says, ' was one of those
young colts, particularly at Eisenach, my beloved town.'
He would also ramble about the neighbourhood with his

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 15

school-fellows ; and often, from the pulpit or the lecturer's
chair, would he tell little anecdotes about those days. The
boys used to sing quartettes at Christmas-time in the
villages, carols on the birth of the Holy Child at Bethlehem.
Once, as they were singing before the door of a solitary
farmhouse, the farmer came out and called to them roughly,
* Where are you, young rascals ? ' He had two large sausages
in his hand for them, but they ran away terrified, till he
shouted after them to come back and fetch the sausages.
So intimidated, says Luther, had he become by the terrors
of school discipline. His object, however, in relating this
incident was to show his hearers how the heart of man too
often construes manifestations of God's goodness and mercy
into messages of fear, and how men should pray to God
perseveringly, and without timidity or shamefacedness. In
those days it was not rare to find even scholars of the
better classes, such as the son of a magistrate at Mansfeld,
and those who, for the sake of a better education, were sent
to distant schools, seeking to add to their means in the
manner we have mentioned.

After this, his father sent him to Eisenach, bearing in
mind the numerous relatives who lived in the town and sur-
rounding country, and who might be of service to him. But
of these no mention has reached us, except of one, named
Konrad, who was sacristan in the church of St. Nicholas.
The others, no doubt, were not in a position to give him any
material assistance.

About this time his singing brought him under the
notice of one Frau Cotta, who with genuine affection took
up the promising boy, and whose memory, in connection
with the great Keformer, still lives in the hearts of the
German people. Her husband, Konrad or Kunz, was one
of the most influential citizens of the town, and sprang
from a noble Italian family who had acquired wealth by
commerce. Ursula Cotta, as her name was, belonged to the
Eisenach family of Schalbe. She died in 1511. Mathesius

1 6 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

tells us how the boy won her heart by his singing and
his earnestness in prayer, and she welcomed him to her
own table. Luther met with similar acts of kindness from
a brother or other relative of hers, and also from an
institution belonging to Franciscan friars at Eisenach,
which was indebted to the Schalbe family for several rich
endowments, and was named, in consequence, the Schalbe
College. At Frau Cotta's, Luther was first introduced to
the life in a patrician's house, and learned to move in that
society.

At Eisenach he remained at school for four years.
Many years afterwards we find him on terms of friendly
and grateful intercourse with one Father Wiegand, who
had been his schoolmaster there. Eatzeberger, speaking
of the then schoolmaster at Eisenach, mentions a ' distin-
guished poet and man of learning, John Trebonius,' who,
as he tells us, every morning, on entering the schoolroom,
would take off his biretta, because God might have chosen
many a one of the lads present to be a future mayor, or
chancellor, or learned doctor ; a thought which, as he adds,
was amply realised afterwards in the person of Doctor
Luther. The relations of these two at the school, which
contained several classes, must be a matter of conjecture.
But the system of teaching pursued there was praised
afterwards by Luther himself to Melancthon. The
former acquired there that thorough knowledge of Latin
which was then the chief preparation for University
study. He learned to write it, not only in prose, but
also in verse, which leads us to suppose that the school at
Eisenach took a part in the Humanistic movement already
mentioned. Happily, his active mind and quick under-
standing had already begun to develop ; not only did he
make up for lost ground, but he even outstripped those of
his own age.

As we see him growing up to manhood, the future
hero of the faith, the teacher, and the warrior, the most

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 17

important question for us is the course which his religious
development took from childhood.

He who, in after years, waged such a tremendous war-
fare with the Church of his time, always gratefully acknow-
ledged, and in his own teaching and conduct kept steadily
in view, how, within herself, and underneath all the corrup-
tions he denounced, she still preserved the groundwork of
a Christian life, the charter of salvation, the fundamental
truths of Christianity, and the means of redemption and
blessing, vouchsafed by the grace of God. Especially did
he acknowledge all that he had himself received from the
Church since childhood. In that House, he says on one
occasion, he was baptised, and catechised in the Christian
truth, and for that reason he would always honour it as the
House of his Father. The Church would at any rate take
care that children, at home and at school, should learn by
heart the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten
Commandments ; that they should pray, and sing psalms
and Christian hymns. Printed books, containing them,
were already in existence. Among the old Christian hymns
in the German language, of which a surprisingly rich col-
lection has been formed, a certain number, at least, were in
common use in the churches, especially for festivals. ' Fine
songs ' Luther called them, and he took care that they
should live on in the Evangelical communities. Those old
verses form in part the foundation of the hymns which we
owe to his own poetical genius. Thus for Christmas we
still have the carol of those times, Ein Kindelein so lobelich ;
and the first verse of Luther's Whitsun hymn, Nun bitten
wir den Heiligen Geist, is taken, he tells us, from one of
those old-fashioned melodies. Of the portions of Scripture
read in church, the Gospels and Epistles were given in the
mother-tongue. Sermons, also, had long been preached in
German, and there were printed collections of them for the
use of the clergy.

The places where Luther grew up were certainly better

c

1 8 LUTHER S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

off in this respect than many others. For, in the main,
very much was still wanting to realise what had been re-
commended and striven for by pious Churchmen, and writers
and religious fraternities, or even enjoined by the Church
herself. The -Reformers had, indeed, a heavy and an irre-
futable indictment to bring against the Catholic Church
system of their time. The grossest ignorance and short-
comings were exposed by the Visitations which they under-
took, and from these we may fairly judge of the actual state
of things existing for many years before. It appeared, that
even where these portions of the catechism were taught by
parents and schoolmasters, they never formed the subject of
clerical instruction to the young. It was precisely one of
the charges brought against the enemies of the Reformation,
that, notwithstanding the injunctions of their Church, they
habitually neglected this instruction, and preferred teaching
the children such things as carrying banners in processions
and holy tapers. Priests were found, in the course of these
visitations, who had scarcely any knowledge of the chief
articles of the faith. His own personal experience of this
neglect, when young, is not noticed by Luther in his later
complaints on the subject.

But the main fault and failing which he recognised in
after life, and which, as he tells us, was a source of inward
suffering to him from childhood, was the distorted view,
held up to him at school and from the pulpit, of the con-
ditions of Christian salvation, and, consequently, of his
own proper religious attitude and demeanour.

Luther himself, as we learn from him in later life, would
have Christian children brought up in the happy assurance
that God is a loving Father, Christ a faithful Saviour, and
that it is their privilege and duty to approach their Father
with frank and childlike confidence, and, if aroused to a
consciousness of sin or wrong, to entreat at once His for-
giveness. Such however, he tells us, was not what he was
taught. On the contrary, he was instructed, and trained up

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 19

from childhood in that narrowing conception of Christianity,
and that outward form of religiousness, against which, more
than anything, he bore witness as a Reformer.

God was pictured to him as a Being unapproachably
sublime, and of awful holiness ; Christ, the Saviour,
Mediator, and Advocate, whose revelation can only bring
judgment to those who reject salvation, as the threatening
Judge, against whose wrath, as against that of God, man
sought for intercession and mediation from the Virgin and
the other saints. This latter worship, towards the close of
the middle ages, had increased in importance and extent.
Peculiar honour was paid to particular saints, in particular
places, and for the furtherance of particular interests. The
warlike St. George was the special saint of the town and
county of Man sf eld : his effigy still surmounts the entrance
to the old school-house. Among the miners the worship of
St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, soon became popular
towards the end of the century, and the mining town of
Annaberg, built in 1496, was named after her. Luther
records how the ' great stir ' was first made about her,
when he was a boy of fifteen, and how he was then anxious
to place himself under her protection. There is no lack of
religious writings of that time, which, with the view of
preserving the Catholic faith, warn men earnestly against
the danger of overvaluing the saints, and of placing their
hopes more in them than in God ; but we see from those
very warnings how necessary they were, and later history
shows us how little fruit they bore. As for Luther, certain
beautiful features in the lives and legends of the saints
exercised over him a power of attraction which he never
afterwards renounced ; and of the Virgin he always spoke
with tender reverence, only regretting that men wished to
make an idol of her. But of his early religious belief, he
says that Christ appeared to him as seated on a rainbow,
like a stern Judge ; from Christ men turned to the saints,
to be their patrons, and called on the Virgin to bare her

c2

20 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

breasts to her Son, and dispose him thereby to mercy. An
example of what deceptions were sometimes practised in
such worship came to the notice of the Elector John
Frederick, the friend of Luther, and probably originated in
a convent at Eisenach. It was a figure, carved in wood, of
the Virgin with the infant Saviour in her arms, which was
furnished with a secret contrivance by means of which the
Child, when the people prayed to him, first turned away
to His mother, and only when they had invoked her as
intercessor, bowed towards them with His little arms
outstretched.

On the other hand, the sinner who was troubled with
cares about his soul and thoughts of Divine judgment, found
himself directed to the performance of particular acts of
penance and pious exercises, as the means to appease a
righteous God. He received judgment and commands
through the Church at the confessional. The Eeformers
themselves, and Luther especially, fully recognised the
value of being able to pour out the inner temptations of
the heart to some Christian father-confessor, or even to
some other brother in the faith, and to obtain from his lips
that comfort of forgiveness which God, in His love and
mercy, bestows freely on the faithful. But nothing of
this kind, they said, was to be found in the confessional.
The conscience was tormented with the enumeration of single
sins, and burdened with all sorts of penitential formalities ;
and it was just with a view that everyone should be drawn
to this discipline of the Church, should use it regularly, and
should seek for no other way to make his peace with God,
that the educational activity of the Church, both with young
and old, was especially directed.

Luther, in after life, as we have already remarked,
always recognised and found comfort in the fact that, even
under such conditions as the above, enough of the simple
message of salvation in the Bible could penetrate the
heart, and awaken a faith which, in spite of all artificial

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 21

restraints and perplexing dogmas, should throw itself, with
inward longing and childlike trust, into the arms of God's
mercy, and so enjoy true forgiveness. He received, as we
shall see, some salutary directions for so doing from later
friends of his, who belonged to the Eomish Church, nor was
that character of ecclesiastical religiousness, so to speak,
stamped everywhere, or to the same degree, on Christian
life in Germany during his youth. Nevertheless, his whole
inner being, from boyhood, was dominated by its influence ;
he, at all events, had never been taught to appreciate the
Gospel as a child. Looking back in later years on his
monastic days, and the whole of his previous life, he
declared that he never could feel assured that his baptism
in Christ was sufficient for his salvation, and that he was
sorely troubled with doubt whether any piety of his own would
be able to secure for him God's mercy. Thoughts of this
kind he said induced him to become a monk.

Men have never been wanting, either before or since
the time of Luther's youth, to denounce the abuses and
corruptions of the Church, and particularly of the clergy.
Language of this sort had long found its way to the
popular ear, and had proceeded also from the people them-
selves. Complaints were made of the tyranny of the Papal
hierarchy, and of their encroachments on social and civil life,
as well as of the worldliness and gross immorality of the
priests and monks. The Papacy had reached its lowest
depth of moral degradation under Pope Alexander VI. We
hear nothing, however, of the impressions produced on
Luther, in this respect, in the circumstances of his early
life. The news of such scandals as were then enacted at
Eome, shamelessly and in open day, very likely took a long
while to reach Luther and those about him. With regard
to the carnal offences of the clergy, against which, to the
honour of Germany be it said, the German conscience
especially revolted, he made afterwards the noteworthy re-
mark, that although during his boyhood the priests allowed

22 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

themselves mistresses, they never incurred the suspicion
of anything like unbridled sensuality or adulterous conduct.
Examples of such kind date only from a later period.

The loyalty with which Mansfeld, his home, adhered to
the ancient Church, is shown by several foundations of that
time, all of which have reference to altars and the celebra-
tion of mass. The overseer of the mines, Keinicke, the
friend of Luther's family, is among the founders : he left
provision for keeping up services in honour of the Virgin and
St. George.

A peculiarly reverential demeanour, in regard to religion
and the Church, is observable in Luther's father, and one
which was common no doubt among his honest, simple, pious
fellow townsfolk. His conduct was consistently God-fear-
ing. In his house it was afterwards told how he would often
pray at the bedside of his little Martin, — how, as the friend
of godliness and learning, he had enjoyed the friendship of
priests and school-teachers. Words of pious reflection from
his lips remained stamped on Luther's memory from his boy-
hood. Thus Luther tells us, in a sermon preached towards
the close of his life, how he had often heard his dear father
say, that, as his own parents had told him, the earth con-
tains many more who require to be fed than there are
sheaves, even if collected from all the fields in the world ;
and yet how wondrously does God know how to preserve man-
kind ! In common with his fellow- townsmen, he followed the
precepts and commands of his Church. When, in the year
in which he sent his son to Magdeburg, two new altars in
the church at Mansfeld were consecrated to a number of
saints, and sixty days' indulgence was granted to anyone
who heard mass at them, Hans Luther, with Eeinicke and
other fellow-magistrates, was among the first to make use
of the invitation. The enemies of the Eeformer, while
fain to trace his origin to a heretic Bohemian, had not a
shadow of a reason for suspecting his real father of any
leanings to heresy. Nor do we hear a word in later years

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 23

from the Eeforraer, after his father had separated with hira
from the Catholic Church, to show a trace of any hostile or
critical remark against that Church, remembered from the
lips of his father during childhood. Quietly but firmly the
latter asserted his own judgment, and framed his will ac-
cordingly. He was firm, in particular, in the consciousness
of his paternal rights and duties, even against the pre-
tensions of the clergy. Thus, as his son Martin tells
us, when he lay once on the point of death, and the
priest admonished him to leave something to the clergy, he
replied in the simplicity of his heart, ' I have many children :
I will leave it them, for they want it more.' We shall see
how unyieldingly, when his son entered a convent, he in-
sisted, as against all the value and usefulness of monasticism,
on the paramount obligation of God's command, that
children should obey their parents. Luther also tells us
how his father once praised in high terms the will left by a
Count of Mansfeld, who without leaving any property to
the Church, was content to depart from this world trusting
solely to the bitter sufferings and death of Christ, and com-
mending his soul to Him. Luther himself, when a young
student, would have considered, as he tells us, a bequest to
churches or convents a proper will to make. His father
afterwards accepted his son's doctrine of salvation without
hesitation, and with the full conviction that it was right.
But remarks of his such as we have quoted, were consisted
with a perfectly blameless demeanour in regard to the forms
of conduct and belief as prescribed by the Church, with
an avoidance of criticism and argument on ecclesiastical
matters, which he knew were not his vocation, and above
all with a complete abstention from such talk in the
presence of his children. As to what concerns further the
positive religious influence which he exercised over his
children, any such impressions as he might have given by
what he said of the Count of Mansfeld, were fully counter-

24 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

balanced by the severity and firmness of his paternal
discipline.

Concurrent with the doctrine of salvation through the
intercession of the saints and the Church, and one's own
good works, which Luther had been taught from his youth,
were the dark popular ideas of the power of the devil — ideas,
which, though not actually invented, were at least patronised
by the Church, and which not only threaten the souls of
men, but cast a baneful spell over all their natural life.
Luther, as is well known, has frequently expressed his own
opinions about the devil, in connection with the enchant-
ments supposed to be practised by the Evil One on mankind,
and, more especially, on the subject of witchcraft. Of on^
thing he was certain, that in God's hand we are safe from
the Evil One, and can triumph over him. But even he
believed the devil's work was manifested in sudden accidents
and striking phenomena of Nature, in storms, conflagra-
tions, and the like. As to the tales of sorcery and magic,
which were told and believed in by the people, some he
declared to be incredible, others he ascribed to the hallucina-
tions effected by the devil. But that witches had power to
do one bodily harm, that they plagued children in particular,
and that their spells could affect the soul, he never seriously
doubted.

From his earliest childhood, and especially at home,
ideas of that kind had been instilled into Luther, and
accordingly they ministered strong food to his imagination.
They had just then spread to a remarkable extent among
the Germans, and had developed in remarkable ways.
They had affected the administration of ecclesiastical and
civil law, they had given rise to the Inquisition and the
most barbarous cruelties in the punishment of those who
were pretended to be in league with the devil, and they had
gradually multiplied their baneful effects. The year after
Luther's birth, appeared the remarkable Papal bull which

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 25

sanctioned the trial of witches. When a boy, Luther heard
a great deal about witches, though later in life he thought
there was no longer so much talk about them, and he would
not scruple to tell stories of how they harmed men and
cattle, and brought down storms and hail. Nay, of his own
mother he believed that she had suffered much from the
witcheries of a female neighbour, who, as he said, ' plagued
her children till they nearly screamed themselves to death.'
Delusions such as these are certainly dark shadows in the
picture of Luther's youth, and are important towards under-
standing his inner life as a man.

But while admitting the existence of these superstitious
and pseudo-religious notions, we must not imagine that they
composed the whole portraiture of Luther's early life. He
was, as Mathesius describes him, a merry, jovial young fellow.
In his later reflections on himself and his youthful days,
the very war he was waging against the false teachings of
the Church, from which he himself had suffered, made him
dwell, as was natural, on this side of his early life. But
amidst all those trials and depressing influences, the fresh
and elastic vigour of his nature stood the strain — a vigour
innate and inherited, and which afterwards shone forth in
a new and brighter light, under a new aspect of religious
life. His childlike joy in Nature around him, which after-
wards distinguished so remarkably the theologian and
champion of the faith, must be referred back to his original
bent of mind and his life, when a boy, amid Nature's
surroundings.

How much he lived, from childhood, with the peasantry,
is shown by the natural ease with which he spoke in the
popular dialect, even when he was learning Latin and
enjoying a higher culture, and by the frequency with which
the native roughnesses of that dialect broke out in his
learned discourses or sermons. In no other theologian, nay,
in no other known German writer of his century, do we

26 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

meet with so many popular proverbs as in Luther, to whom
they came naturally in his conversations and letters.
German legends also, and popular tales, such as the history
of Dietrich von Bern and other heroes, or of Eulenspiegel
or Markolf, would hardly have been remembered so accu-
rately by him in later years, if he had not familiarised
himself with them in childhood. He would at times inveigh
against the worthless, and even shameless tales and
* gossip,' as he called it, which such books contained, and
especially against the priests who used to spice their sermons
with such stories ; but that he also recognised their value
we know from his allusion to ' some people, who had
written songs about Dietrich and other giants, and in so
doing had expounded much greater subjects in a short and
simple manner.' The pleasure with which he himself may
have read or listened to them, can be gathered from his
remark that ■ when a story of Dietrich von Bern is told, one
is bound to remember it afterwards, even though one has
only heard it once.'

He maintained through life a faithful devotion to the
places where he had grown up. Eisenach remained, as we
have already seen, his beloved town. Mansfeld was par-
ticularly dear to him as his home, and the whole county
as his ' fatherland ; ' he calls it with pride a ' noble and
famous county.' The miners also, who were his fellow-
countrymen and his dear father's work-mates, he loved all
his life long. But a wider horizon was not opened to him
among the people of the little town of Mansfeld, or where
he afterwards went to school. To this fact, and to his quiet
life as a monk, we must ascribe the peculiar feature of his
later activity, namely, that while prosecuting with far-seeing
eye and a warm heart the highest and most extensive tasks
for his Church and for the German people in general
still, at the beginning of his work and campaign, he under*
stood but little of the great world outside, and of politics,

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 27

or even of the general state of Germany ; nay, he shows at
times a touchingly childlike simplicity in these matters.

The last few years of his school-life enabled him to make

brave progress on the road to intellectual culture, which

his father wished him to pursue. Thus equipped, he was

prepared at the age of eighteen, to remove, in the summer

■ of 1501 to the university at Erfurt.

28 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

CHAPTER III.

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT AND ENTRY INTO THE CONVENT,

1501-1505.

Among the German universities, that of Erfurt, which
could count already a hundred years of prosperous exist-
ence, occupied at this time a brilliant position. So high,
Luther tells us, was its standing and reputation, that all its
sister institutions were regarded as mere pigmies by its
side. His parents could now afford to give him the neces-
sary means for studying at such a place. ' My dear father,'
he says, ' maintained me there with loyal affection, and by
his labour and the sweat of his brow enabled me to go there.'
He had now begun to feel a burning thirst for learning, and
here, at the ' fountain of all knowledge,' to use Melanc-
thon's words, he hoped to be able to quench it.

He began with a complete course of philosophy, as that
science was then understood. It dealt, in the first place,
with the laws and forms of thought and knowledge, with
language, in which Latin formed the basis, or with grammar
and rhetoric, as also with the highest problems and most
abstruse questions of physics, and comprised even a general
knowledge of natural science and astronomy. A complete
study of all these subjects was not merely requisite for
learned theologians, but frequently served as an introduc-
tion to that of law, and even of medicine.

When Luther first came from Eisenach to Erfurt, there
was nothing yet about him that attracted the attention of
others so far as to call forth any contemporary account of
him. Enough, however, is known of the most eminent

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 29

teachers there, at whose feet he sate, and also of the general
kind of intellectual food which they administered. He gained
entrance into a circle of older and younger men than him-
self, teachers and fellow-students, who in later years, either
as friends or opponents, were able to bear witness, favour-
ably or the reverse, as to his life and work at Erfurt.

The leading professor of philosophy at Erfurt was then
Jodocus Trutvetter, who, three years after Luther's arrival,
became also doctor of theology and lecturer of the theolo-
gical faculty. Next to him, in this department, ranked
Bartholomew Arnoldi of Usingen. It was to these two
men above others, and particularly to the former, that
Luther looked for his instruction.

The philosophy which was then in vogue at Erfurt,
and which found its most vigorous champion in Trutvetter,
was that of the Scholasticism of later days. It is common
to associate with the idea of Scholasticism, or the theolo-
gical and philosophical School-science of the middle ages,
a system of thought and instruction, embracing, indeed,
the highest questions of knowledge and existence, but at
the same time not venturing to strike into any independent
paths, or to deviate an inch from tradition, but submitting
rather, in everything connected, or supposed to be con-
nected, with religious belief, to the dogmas and decrees of
the Church and the authority of the early Fathers, and
wasting the understanding and intellect in dry formalism or
subtle but barren controversies. This conception fails to
appreciate the vast labour of thought bestowed by leading
minds on the attempt to unravel the mass of ecclesiastical
teaching which had twined round the innermost lives of
themselves and their fellow- Christians, and at the same time
to follow those general questions under the guidance of the
old philosophers, especially Aristotle, of whom they knew
but little. But it is applicable, at any rate, to the Scholas-
ticism of later days. The confidence with which its older
exponents had thought to explain and establish orthodoxy

30 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

by means of their favourite science, was gone ; all the
more, therefore, should that science keep silence in face of
the commands of the Church. Men, moreover, had grown
tired of the old questions of philosophy about the reality
and real existence of Universals. It had been formerly a
question of dispute whether our general ideas had a real
existence, or whether they were nothing more than words
or names, mere abstractions, comprehending the individual,
which alone was supposed to possess Keality. At that time
the latter doctrine, that of Nominalism, as it was called,
prevailed. At length, these new or ' modern ' philosophers
abandoned the question of Realism, and the relation of
thought to Eeality, in favour of a system of pure logic or
dialectics, dealing with the mere forms and expressions
of thought, the formal analysis of ideas and words, the
mutual relation of propositions and conclusions — in short,
all that constitutes what we call formal logic, in its widest
acceptation. At this point, the far-famed scholastic
intellect, with its subtleties, its fine distinctions, its nice
questions, its sophistical conclusions, reached its zenith.

To this logic Trutvetter also devoted himself, and in it
he taught his pupils. He had just then published a series
of treatises on the subject. To him this study was real
earnest. Compared with others, he has shown in these
excursions a cautious and discreet moderation, and no
inclination for the quarrels and verbal combats often dear
to logicians. The same can be said of his colleague
Usingen. Trutvetter has shown also that he enjoyed and
was widely read in earlier and modern, especially, of course,
in Scholastic literature, including the works not only of the
most important, but also of very obscure authors. We can
imagine what delight he took in all this when in his
professor's chair, and how much he expected from his
pupils.

At Erfurt meanwhile, and by this same philosophical
faculty, a fresh and vigorous impulse was being given to

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 31

that study of classical antiquity, which gave birth to a new
learning, and ushered in a new era of intellectual culture
in Germany. We have already had occasion to refer to the
movement and influence of Humanism' at the schools which
Luther attended at Magdeburg and Eisenach. He now
found himself at one of the chief nurseries of these ' arts
and letters ' in Germany, nay, at the very place where their
richest blossoms were unfolded. Erfurt could boast of
having issued the first Greek book printed in Germany in
Greek type, namely, a grammar, printed in Luther's first
year at the University. It was the Greek and Latin poets,
in particular, whose writings stirred the enthusiasm and
emulation of the students. For refined expression and
learned intercourse, the fluent and elegant Latin language
was studied, as given in the works of classical writers.
But far more important still was the free movement of
thought, and the new world of ideas thus opened up.

In proportion as these young disciples of antiquity
learned to despise the barbarous Latin and insipidity of the
monkish and scholastic education of the day, they began to
revolt against Scholasticism, against the dogmas of faith
propounded by the Church, and even against the religious
opinions of Christendom in general. History shows us the
different paths taken, in this respect, by the Humanists ;
and we shall come across them, in another way, during the
career of the Reformer, as having an important influence
on the course of the Reformation. With many, an honest
striving after religion and morality allied itself with the
impulse for independent intellectual culture, and tried to
utilise it for improving the condition of the Church. When
the struggle of the Reformation began, some followed
Luther and the other religious teachers on his side, some,
shrinking back from his trenchant conclusions, and, above
all, concerned for their own stock-in-trade of learning,
counselled others to practise prudence and moderation, and
themselves retired to the service of their muses. Others

32 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

again, broke away altogether from the Christian faith and
the principles of Christian morality. They took delight in
a new life of Heathenism, devoted sometimes to sensual
pleasures and gross immoralities, sometimes to the indul-
gence of refined tastes and the enjoyment of art. These
latter never raised a weapon against the Church, but for
the most part accommodated themselves to her forms. In
her teachings, her ordinances, and her discipline, they saw
something indispensable to the multitude, as whose conscious
superiors they behaved. Indeed, they themselves wielded
this government in the Church, and comfortably enjoyed
their authority and its fruits. In Italy, at Rome, and on
the Papal chair these despotic pretensions were then
asserted without shame or reserve. In Germany, on the
other hand, the leading champions of the new learning,
even when in open arms against the barbarism of the
monks and clergy, sought, for themselves and their dis-
ciples, to remain faithful on the ground of their Mother
Church. At Erfurt, in particular, the relations between
them and the representatives of Scholasticism were peace-
ful, unconstrained, and friendly. The dry writings of a
Trutvetter they prefaced with panegyrics in Latin verse,
and the Trutvetter would try to imitate their purer
style.

Some talented young students of the classics at Erfurt
formed themselves into a small coterie of their own. They
enjoyed the cheerful pleasures of youthful society, nor were
poetry and wine wanting, but the rules of decorum and
good manners were not overlooked. Several men, whom
we shall come across afterwards in the history of Luther,
belonged to this circle ; — for instance, John Jager, known
as Crotus Eubianus, the friend of Ulrich Hutten, and
George Spalatin (properly Burkhard), the trusted fellow-
labourer of the Reformer. Both had already been three
years at the university when Luther entered it. Three
years after his arrival, came Eoban Hess, the most brilliant,

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT.

33

talented, and amiable of the young Humanists and poets of
Germany.

Such was the learned company to which Luther was
introduced in the philosophical faculty at Erfurt. So far,
different avenues of intellectual culture were opened to him.
He threw himself into the study of that philosophy in all
its bearings, and, not content with exploring the tangled
and thorny paths of logic, took counsel how to enjoy, as far
as possible, the fruits of the newly-revived knowledge of
antiquity.

As regards the latter, he carried the study of Ovid,
Virgil, and Cicero, in particular, farther than was customary
with the professed students of Humanism, and the same
with the poetical works of more modern Latin writers.
But his chief aim was not so much to master the mere
language of the classical authors, or to mould himself
according to their form, as to cull from their pages rich
apophthegms of human wisdom, and pictures of human
life and of the history of peoples. He learned to express
pregnant and powerful thoughts clearly and vigorously in
learned Latin, but he was himself well aware how much
his language was wanting in the elegance, refinement, and
charm of the new school ; indeed, this elegance he never
attempted to attain.

With the members of this circle of young Humanists,
Luther was on terms of personal friendship. Crotus was
able to remind him in after life how, in close intimacy, they
had studied the fine arts together at the university. But
there is no mention of him in the numerous letters and
poems left to posterity by the aspiring Humanists at Erfurt.
He had made himself, Crotus adds, a name among his com-
panions as the ■ learned philosopher ' and the ' musician,'
but he never belonged to the * poets,' which was the
favourite title of the young Humanists. Many, including
even Melancthon, have lamented that he was not more
deeply imbued with the spirit of those ' noble arts and letters/

D

34 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

which educate the mind, and would have tended to soften
his rugged nature and manner. But they would have been
of little value to him for the quick decision and energy
required for the war he had afterwards to wage. Those
intellectual treasures and enjoyments kept aloof not only
from such contests, but also from sharp and searching
investigations of the highest questions of religion and
morality, and from the inward struggle, so often painful,
which they bring. As regards the merits of Humanism,
which Luther again, as a Eeformer, eagerly acknowledged,
we must not forget how selfishly it withdrew itself from
contact and communion with German popular life, nor how
it helped to create an exclusive aristocracy of intellect, and
allowed the noblest talents to become as clumsy in their
own natural mother-tongue, as they were clever in the
handling of foreign, acquired forms of art. Luther, in not
yielding further to those influences, remained a German.

Philosophy, then, engrossed him, and allowed him but
little time for other things. And in studying this, he
sought to grapple with the highest problems of the human
understanding. These problems occupied also the labours
of the later Scholastics, however faulty were the forms in
which they clothed their ideas. At the same time, these
very forms attracted him, from the scope they gave to the
exercise of his natural acuteness and understanding. Dis-
putation was his great delight ; and argumentative contests
were then in fashion at the universities. But in after years,
as soon as the contents of the Bible were opened to his
inner understanding, and he recognised in its pages the
object of real theological knowledge, he regretted the time
and labour which he had wasted on those studies, and even
spoke of them with disgust.

Crotus has already told us of the sociable life that
Luther led with his friends. The love for music, which he
had shown in school-days, he continued to keep up, and
indulged in it merrily with his fellow-students. He had a

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. ■ 35

high-pitched voice, not strong, but audible at a distance.
Besides singing, he learned also to play the lute, and this
without a master, and he employed his time in this way
when laid up once by an accident to his leg.

Such rapid progress did he make in his philosophical
studies, that in his third term he was able to attain his
baccalaureate, the first academical degree of the theological
faculty. This degree, according to the general custom of
the universities, preceded that of Master, corresponding to
the present Doctor, of philosophy. The examination for it,
which Luther passed on Michaelmas day 1502, professed
to include the most important subjects in the province of
philosophy. But it could not have been very severe. The
chief work came when he took his next degree as Master,
which was at the beginning of 1505. He then experienced
what afterwards, speaking of Erfurt's former glory, he thus
describes : ' What a moment of majesty and splendour was
that, when one took the degree of Master, and torches
were carried before, and honour was paid one. I consider
that no temporal or worldly joy can equal it.' Melancthon
tells us, on the authority of several of Luther's fellow-
students, that his talent was then the wonder of the whole
university.

In accordance with the wish of his father and the advice
of his relations, he was now to fit himself for a lawyer.
In this profession, they thought, he would be able to turn
his talents to the best account, and make a name in the
world. And in this department also, the university of Erfurt
could boast of one of the most distinguished men of learn-
ing of that time, Henning Goede, who was now in the
prime of his vigour. Luther, accordingly, began to attend
the lectures on law, and his father allowed him to buy some
valuable books for that purpose, particularly a ' Corpus
Juris.'

Meanwhile, however, in his inner religious life a change

d2

36 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

was being prepared, which proved the turning-point of his
career.

Luther himself, as we have seen, frequently pointed out
in after life the influences which, even from childhood,
under the discipline of home, the experiences of school, and
the teaching of the Church, combined to bring about this
result. He could never shake off for any length of time,
even when in the midst of learned study or the enjoyment
of student life, the consciousness that he must be pious and
satisfy all the strict commands of God, that he must make
good all the shortcomings of his life, and reconcile himself
with Heaven, and that an angry Judge was throned above
who threatened him with damnation. Inner voices of this
kind, in a man of sensitive and tender conscience, were
bound to assert themselves the more loudly and earnestly,
as, in his progress from youth to manhood, he realised
more fully his personal responsibility to God, and also his
personal independence. To religious observances, in which
he had been trained from childhood, Luther, as a student,
remained faithful. Eegularly he began his day with prayer,
and as regularly attended mass. But of any new or com-
forting means of access to God and salvation, he heard
nothing, even here. In the town of Erfurt there was an
earnest and powerful preacher, named Sebastian Weinmann,
who denounced in incisive language the prevalent vices of
the day, and exposed the corruption of ecclesiastical life,
and whom the students thronged to hear. But even he had
nothing to offer to satisfy Luther's inward cravings of the
soul. It was an episode in his life when he once found a
Latin Bible in the library of the university. Though then
nearly twenty years of age, he had never yet seen a Bible.
Now for the first time he saw how much more it contained
than was ever read out and explained in the churches.
With delight he perused the story of Samuel and his mother,
on the first pages that met his eye ; though, as yet, he
could make nothing more out of the Sacred Book. It was

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT.

37

not on account of any particular offences, such as youthful
excesses, that Luther feared the wrath of God. Staunch
Catholics at Erfurt, including even later avowed enemies of
the Eeformer, who knew him there as a student, have never
hinted at anything of that sort against him. ' The more
we wash our hands, the fouler they become,' was a favourite
saying of Luther's. He referred, no doubt, to the numerous
faults in thought, word, and deed, which, in spite of human
carefulness, every day brings, and which, however insignifi-
cant they might seem to others, his conscience told him
were sins against God's holy law. Disquieting questions,
moreover, now arose in his mind, so sorely troubled with
temptation ; and his subtle and penetrating intellect, so far
from being able to solve them, only plunged him deeper in
distress. Was it then really God's own will, he asked
himself, that he should become actually purged from sin
and thereby be saved ? Was not the way to hell or the
way to heaven already fixed for him immutably in God's
will and decree, by which everything is determined and
preordained ? And did not the very futility of his own
endeavours hitherto prove that it was the former fate that
hung over him ? He was in danger of going utterly astray
in his conception of such a God. Expressions in the
Bible such as those which speak of serving Him with fear
became to him intolerable and hateful. He was seized at
times with fits of despair such as might have tempted him
to blaspheme God. It was this that he afterwards referred
to as the greatest temptation he had experienced when
young.

His physical condition probably contributed to this
gloomy frame of mind. Already during his baccalaureate
we hear of an illness of his, which awakened in him thoughts
of death. A friend, represented by later tradition as an aged
priest, said to him on his sick bed, ' Take courage ; God will
yet make you the means of comfort to many others ; ' and
these words impressed him strongly even then. An accident

38 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

also, which threatened to be fatal, must have tended to alarm
him. As he was travelling home at Easter, and was within an
hour's distance of Erfurt, he accidentally injured the main
artery of his leg with the rapier which, like other students,
he carried at his side. Whilst a friend who was with him
had gone for a doctor, and he was left alone, he pressed
the wound tightly as he lay on his back, but the leg
continued to swell. In the anguish of death he called upon
the Virgin to help him. That night his terror was renewed
when the wound broke open afresh, and again he invoked
the Mother of God. It was during his convalescence after
this accident that he resolved upon learning to play the
lute.

He was terribly distressed also, a few months after he
had taken his degree as Master, by the sudden death of one
of his friends, not further known to us, who was either
assassinated or snatched away by some other fatality.

Well might the thought even then have occurred to
him, while so disturbed in his mind and overpowered by
feelings of sadness, whether it would not be better to
seek his cure in the monastic holiness recommended by
the Church, and to renounce altogether the world and all
the success he had hitherto aspired to. The young Master
of Arts, as he tells us himself in later years, was indeed a
sorrowful man.

Suddenly and offhand he was hurried into a most
momentous decision. Towards the end of June 1505,
when several Church festivals fall together, he paid a visit
to his home at Mansfeld, in quest, very possibly, of rest
and comfort to his mind. Eeturning on July 2, the feast
of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, he was already near
Erfurt, when, at the village of Stotternheim a terrific storm
broke over his head. A fearful flash of lightning darted
from heaven before his eyes. Trembling with fear, he fell
to the earth, and exclaimed, ' Help, Anna, beloved Saint !
I will be a monk.' A few days after, when quietly settled

STUDENT-DAYS AT ERFURT. 39

again at Erfurt, he repented having used these words. But
he felt that he had taken a vow, and. that, on the strength
of that vow, he had obtained a hearing. The time, he
knew, was past for doubt or indecision. Nor did he think
it necessary to get his father's consent ; his own conviction
and the teaching of the Church told him that no objection
on the part of his father could release him from his vow.
Thus he severed himself at once from his former life
and companions. On July 16 he called his best friends
together to bid them leave. Once more they tried to
keep him back ; he answered them, ' To-day you see me,
and never again.' The next day, that of St. Alexius, they
accompanied him with tears to the gates of the Augustinian
convent in the town, which he thought was to receive him
for ever.

It is chiefly from what Luther himself has told us that
we are enabled to picture to ourselves this remarkable occur-
rence. Kumour, and rumour only, has given the name of
Alexius to that unknown friend whose death so terrified
him, and has represented this friend as having been struck
dead by lightning at his side.

The Luther of later days declared that his monastic
vow was a compulsory one, forced from him by terror and
the fear of death. But, at the same time, he never
doubted that it was God who urged him. Thus he said
afterwards, * I never thought to leave again the convent.
I was entirely dead to the world, until God thought that
the time had come.'

part n.

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR, UNTIL HIS ENTR1
ON THE WAR OF REFORMATION— 1505-1517.

CHAPTER I.

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT, TILL 1508.

Luther's resolve to follow a monastic life was arrived at
suddenly, as we have seen. But he weighed that resolve
well in his mind, and just as carefully considered the choice
of the convent which he entered.

The Augustinian monks, whose society he announced
his intention to join, belonged at that time to the most
important monastic order in Germany. So much had
already been said with justice, in the way of complaint and
ridicule, of the depravation of monastic life, its idleness,
hypocrisy, and gross immorality, that many of them fancied
that the solemn renunciation of marriage and the world's
goods, and the absolute submission of their wills to the
commands of their superiors and the regulations of their
Order, constituted true service to God, and raised them to a
peculiar position of holiness and merit. Outward disci-
pline, at all events, was universally insisted on. Among
the German institutions of this Order, whilst neglect and
depravity had crept in elsewhere, a large number had, for
some time past, distinguished themselves by a strict ad-
herence to their old statutes, originating, it was supposed,
from their founder St. Augustine, but relating, at the best,
to mere matters of form. These institutions formed them-

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 41

selves into an association, presided over by a Vicar of the
Order, as he was called, a Vicar-General for Germany. To
this association belonged the convent at Erfurt. Its inmates
were treated with marked favour and respect by the higher
and educated classes in the town. They were said to be
active in preaching and in the care of souls, and to culti-
vate among themselves the study of theology. Arnoldi,
Luther's teacher, belonged to this convent. As the Order
possessed no property, but all its members lived on alms,
the monks went about the town and country to collect gifts
of money, bread, cheese, and other victuals.

According to the rules of the Order, applications for
admission were not granted at once, but time was taken to
see whether the applicant was in earnest. After that he
was received as a novice for at least a year of probation.
Until that year expired he was at liberty to reconsider his
wish.

Luther, before taking this final step, thought of his
parents, with a view to lay before them his resolve. The
monastic brethren, however, endeavoured to dissuade him,
by reminding him how one must leave father and mother
for Christ and His Cross, and how no one who has put his
hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of
God. Upon his writing to his father on the subject, the
latter, strong in the conviction of his paternal rights, flew
into a passion with his son. ' My father,' says Luther
later, ' was near going mad about it ; he was ill satisfied, and
would not allow it. He sent me an answer in writing,
addressing me in terms that showed his displeasure, and
renouncing all further affection.' Soon after he lost two of
his sons by the plague. This epidemic had likewise broken
out so violently at Erfurt, that about harvest-time whole
crowds of students fled with their teachers from the town,
and Luther's father received news that his son Martin had
also fallen a victim. His friends then urged him that, if
the report proved false, he ought at least to devote his

42 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

dearest to God, by letting this son who still remained to
him, enter the blessed Order of God's servants. At last the
father let himself be talked over ; but he yielded, as Luther
informs us, with a sad and reluctant heart.

The young novice was welcomed among his brethren
with hymns of joy, and prayers, and other ceremonies.
He was soon clothed in the garb of his Order. Over a
white woollen shirt he was made to wear a frock and cowl of
black cloth, with a black leathern girdle. Whenever he put
these on or off a Latin prayer was repeated to ' him aloud,
that the Lord might put off the old and put on the new man,
fashioned according to God. Above the cowl he received a
scapulary, as it was called — in other words, a narrow strip
of cloth hanging over shoulders, breast, and back, and
reaching down to his feet. This was meant to signify that
he took upon him the yoke of Him who said, ' My yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.' At the same time, he was
handed over to a superior, appointed to take charge of the
novices, to introduce them to the practices of monastic
devotion, to superintend their conduct, and to watch over
their souls.

Above all, it was held important that the monks should
be taught to subdue their own wills. They had to learn to
endure, without opposition, whatever was imposed upon
them, and that, indeed, all the more cheerfully, the more
distasteful it appeared. Any tendency to pride was over-
come by enjoining immediately the most menial offices on
the offender. Friends of Luther tell us how, during his first
period of probation in particular, he had to perform the
meanest daily labour with brush and broom, and how his
jealous brethren took particular pleasure in seeing the
proud young graduate of yesterday trudge through the
streets, with his beggar's wallet on his back, by the side of
another monk more accustomed to the work. At first, we
are told, the university interceded on his behalf as a member
of their own body, and obtained for him at least some relaxa-

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 43

tion from his menial duties. From Luther's own lips, in after
life, we hear not a word of complaint about any special vexa-
tions and burdens. As far as was possible, he did not allow
them to daunt him ; nay, he longed for even severer exer-
cises, to enable him to win the favour of God. Even as a
Eeformer he remembered with gratitude the * Pedagogue,'
or superintendent of his noviciate ; he was a fine old man,
he tells us, a true Christian under that execrable cowl.

The novice found each day, as it went by, fully occupied
with the repetition of set prayers and the performance of
other acts of devotion. For the day and night together
there were seven or eight appointed hours of prayer, or
Horce. During each of these the brethren who were not
yet priests had to say twenty-five Paternosters with the
Ave Maria, more ample formulas of prayer being prescribed
meanwhile to the priests. Luther was also introduced
already then to certain theological studies, which were
under the supervision of two learned fathers of the monas-
tery. But what was of the most importance for him was
that a Bible — the Latin translation then in general use in
the Church — was put into his hands. Just about this time,
a new code of statutes had come in force for these Augus-
tinian convents, drawn up by Staupitz, the Vicar of the
Order, which enjoined, as matters of duty, assiduous read-
ing, devout attention to the Hours, and a zealous study of
Holy Writ. Teachers were wanting to Luther, and he
found it very difficult to understand all he read. But with
genuine appetite he read himself, so to speak, into his
Bible, and clung to it ever afterwards.

At the end of his year of probation followed his solemn
admission to the Order. Faithfully ' unto death ' did Luther
then promise to live according to the rules of the holy
father Augustine, and to render obedience to Almighty God,
to the Virgin Mary, and to the prior of the monastery.
Before doing so, he put on anew the dress of his Order,
which had been consecrated with holy water and incense.

44

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

The prior received his vows and sprinkled holy water upon
him as Re prostrated himself upon the ground in the form
of a cross. When the ceremony was over, his brethren
congratulated him on being now like an innocent child
fresh from the baptism. He was then given a cell of his
own, with table, bedstead, and chair. It looked out upon

Fig. 4. — Luther's Cell at Erfurt.

the cloistered yard of the monastery. It was destroyed by
a fire on March 7, 1872.

Luther now, by an inviolable promise, had bound himself
to that vocation through which he aspired to gain heaven.
The means whereby he hoped to realise his aspiration
were abundantly provided for him in his new home. If he

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT 45

sought the favour of the Virgin and of other saints who
should intercede for him before the judgment- seat of God
and Christ, he found at once in his Order a fervent worship
of the Virgin in particular, and all possible directions for
her service. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,
which Pius IX., in our own days, first ventured to raise
into a dogma of the Church, was zealously defended by
the Augustinians, and firmly maintained by Luther himself,
even after the beginning of his war of Reformation. John
Palz, one of his two theological teachers in the convent,
wrote profusely in honour of this doctrine, and described
all Christians as its spiritual children. Under its mantle,
says Luther, he had to creep into the presence of Christ.
From the multitude of other saints Luther selected a
number as his constant helpers in need. We notice par-
ticularly that among these, in addition to St. Anne and
St. George, was the Apostle Thomas ; from him who him-
self had once betrayed such cowardice and want of faith
he might well hope for peculiar sympathy. We have
already mentioned the set prayers which filled up a great
portion of the day. He was required above all things to
learn and repeat them accurately, word by word. After-
wards, as he tells us, the Horce were read aloud after the
manner of magpies, jackdaws, or parrots.

If he wished in penitence to be freed from the sins
which had tormented him so long, and were a daily burden
on his conscience, the means of confession provided by the
Church were always ready for him in the convent. Once a
week, at the least, every brother had to attend the private
confessional. All his sins, without exception, had then to
be revealed, if he wished to obtain for them forgiveness.
Luther endeavoured to unbosom to his father-confessor all
he had done from his youth up ; but this was too much
even for the priest. It was by means of a complete in-
ward contrition, corresponding to the infinite burden of sin,
that the person confessing was to make himself worthy of

46 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

the forgiveness which the priest then testified to him by
absolution. According to the prevailing doctrine, however,
what was wanting to the penitent in completeness of con-
trition, was supplied by the Sacrament of Absolution. But
the punishments reserved by God for sinners were not sup-
posed to be ended by this absolution or forgiveness ; these
had to be atoned for by peculiar observances, imposed by
the priest, and by prayer, alms, fasting, and other acts of
mortification. For him who was not forgiven, remained
hell ; for him who had not expiated his sins, at least the
fear and pains of purgatory. Such was and still is the
teaching of the Catholic Church.

Thus Luther was now summoned and directed to pursue
methodically the painful work of self-examination, which
had oppressed him even before he entered the convent, and
to use all the means of grace here offered to him. But
the more he searched into his life and thoughts, the more
transgressions of God's will he found, and the more
grievously did they afflict his conscience. It was not,
indeed, as might have been imagined with a strong young
man like himself, a question of any sensual appetites, stimu-
lated all the more by the restraints of the convent. It
was with the passions of anger, hatred, and envy against
his brethren and fellow-creatures, that he had to reproach
himself. Those who disliked him accused him in particular
of self-conceit, and of letting his temper break out too
easily. Faults of that description, in thought, word, or
deed, were to his own conscience as deadly sins, though to
the priest who listened to him at confession, they seemed
too trifling to call for enumeration. To these were added
a number of smaller offences against the ordinances of the
Church and the convent, with reference to outward obser-
vances and forms of worship, prayers, and so on, all of
which, insignificant as they must seem to us, the Church
was accustomed to treat as grievous sins. Finally, there
arose in his mind a constant restlessness, which made him

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 47

look for sins where none in reality existed. What he had
said once before about washing one's hands, that it only
made them become fouler, he had now to experience for
himself. His contrition made him feel pain and fear in
abundance, but not so as to enable him to say to himself
that it purged the evil in the sight of God. Absolution
was pronounced over him again and again, but who ever
gave him any assurance that he had fulfilled its conditions,
and therefore could really confide in its efficacy ? As for
acts of penance, he willingly performed them, and, indeed,
did far more in the way of prayer, fasting, and vigil than
either the rules of the convent demanded or his father-
confessor enjoined. His body, from his hardy training as
a child, was well prepared for such austerities, but in spite
of that, he had for a long while to suffer from their results.
Luther, in later years, could well bear witness of himself
that he had caused his own body far more pain and torture
with those practices of penance than all his enemies and
persecutors had caused to theirs.

What leisure remained, after his other monastic duties
were over, he devoted most industriously to the study of
theology. He read, in particular, the writings of the later
Scholastic theologians, with whom he had partly occupied
himself during his philosophical course. Of some of these,
such as the Englishman Occam, in particular, whose acute-
ness of reasoning he especially admired, there were writings
which, in reference to questions of external Church polity,
might have led him even then into paths of his own, if his
mind had been disposed for it. These writings were directed
against the absolute power of the Pope in the Church, and
against his aggressions in the territory of Empire and
State. But any such aim was very far removed from the
monastic Order to which Luther had devoted himself, and
from the theologians who were here his teachers. Palz,
whom we have mentioned already, had especially distin-
guished himself by his glorification of the Papal indul-

48 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

genees. Moreover, the whole Order, and the German
convents belonging to it in particular, were indebted to the
Pope for various acts of favour. Nor was Luther himself less
careful to hold firmly to the ordinances of the hierarchy,
than to avail himself of the means of salvation offered by
the Church.

What at all times in his theological studies enlisted his
warmest personal interest was the difficult question, how
sinners could obtain everlasting salvation. And all that
he came to read on that subject in the writings of those
theologians, and to hear from his learned teachers in the
convent, served only to increase his fruitless inward wrest-
lings, and his anxiety and sense of need. The great
father of the Church, from whom his Order was named,
and to whom then- rules were ascribed, had once, on the
ground of his own experiences of the struggle with sin and
the flesh, laid down with great force, and in a triumphant
controversy with his opponents, the doctrine that, as the
Apostle says, salvation depends not on the conduct of man,
but on the grace of God, not on the will of man, but on
the willingness of God to pardon, Who alone transforms
the sinner, and grants him the power and the will for good.
But any knowledge or understanding of this theology of
Augustine was as strange to his own Order as to the
Scholastics. It was taught, indeed, that heaven was too
high for man to attain to otherwise than by the grace of
God. But it was also taught that the sinner, by his own
natural strength, both could and ought to do enough in
God's sight to earn that grace which would then help him
further on the way to heaven. He who had thus obtained
that grace, it was said, felt himself enabled and impelled
to do even more than God's commands require. Reference
to the bitter passion and death of the Saviour was not
omitted, it is true, by the theologians with whom Luther
had to do, and frequently, as, for example, by his teacher
Palz, was impressed on Christian hearts in words full of

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 49

feeling. But the chief stress was laid, not on the redeem-
ing love on which man could rest his confident assurance,
but on the necessity of offering oneself to Him who had
offered Himself for man, and of submitting even to the
pains of death, in imitation of Him, and to pay the penalty
of sin. In this way, again and again, Luther saw before
him claims on the part of God which he could never hope
to satisfy. His sorest trial was caused by the thought that
God Himself should have the will to let him fail after all
his fruitless efforts, and finally be numbered with the lost.
And it was just with the later Scholastics that he found,
not indeed a theory according to which God had simply
predestined a part of mankind to perdition, but a general
conception of God which would represent Him as a Being
not so much of holy love, as of arbitrary, absolute will.

Luther spent two years in the convent amidst these
strivings and inward sufferings. His spiritual life, as it
was called, of strict discipline and asceticism was quoted
in other convents as a model for imitation. Now and then,
indeed, he felt himself puffed up with a sense of superior
sanctity — ' a proud saint,' as he afterwards called himself.
But humility was the ruling temper of his mind. Fre-
quently, in after life, he described his condition as a warn-
ing to others. Thus he speaks of the disciples of the law,
who try by their own works, by constant labour, by wearing
shirts of hair, by self- scourging, by fasting, by every means,
in short, to satisfy the law. Such a one, he tells us, he
himself had been. But he had also learned by experience,
he adds, what happens when a man is tempted, and death
or danger frightens him ; how he despairs, nay, would fly
fi om God as from the devil, and would rather that there were
no God at all. So great became his inward sufferings, that
he thought both body and soul must succumb. Thus he
tells us later on, when speaking of the torments of purga-
tory, of a man, who doubtless was himself, how he had
often endured such agony, only momentary it is true, but

E

50 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

so hellish in its violence, that no tongue could express nor
pen describe it ; that, had it lasted longer, even for half
an hour, or only five minutes, he must have died then
and there, and his bones have been consumed to ashes.
He himself saw afterwards in these pains, visitations of a
special kind, such as God does not send to everyone. But
they served him then as a proof, and one of universal
application, that that school of the law, as he called it,
would bring no real holiness either to others or himself,
but must teach a man to despair of himself and of any
claims or merits of his own. And, indeed, as we know
from all that had gone before, it was not simply the ex-
ternal barrenness of the regulations of Church and convent,
or a sense of imperfect fulfilment on his part, that caused
his restlessness of conscience ; what gave him the deepest
anxiety and harassed him the most were those very inward
stirrings, which revealed to him his opposition to God's
eternal demands, the fulfilment of which he thought indis-
pensable for reconciliation to God.

His experiences at the convent led him to the perception
of those principles which formed the groundwork of his
preaching as a Eeformer. From his exemplary conduct
there, and his wonderful and active conversion, he was
compared to St. Paul. In quite another sense he resembled
the great Apostle. The latter, when a Pharisee, had
laboured to justify himself before God by the law and the
prophets. * 0 wretched man that I am,' Luther there
must have exclaimed of himself, and afterwards, looking
back on his experiences, have counted all as ' dung and loss,'
in order to be justified rather by faith through the grace of
God and the Saviour, and to become free and holy.

Just as, meanwhile, inside the Catholic Church, the
laws, dogmas, and School theories relating to the means of
salvation, were never able to supplant entirely the thought
of the simple testimony of the Bible, and of the Church's
own confession of God's forgiving love and His redeeming

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 51

and absolving grace, or to prevent simple, pious Christians
from seeking here a refuge in the inmost depths of their
hearts, so now, at this very convent of Erfurt, where
Luther's inward development in those theories and dogmas
had reached so high a pitch, he received also the first
serious impressions in the other direction. They found
with him a difficult and gradual entrance, from the energy
and consistency with which he had taken up his original
standpoint. But with all the more energy, and with perfect
consistency, did he abandon that standpoint, when new
light dawned upon him from his new conception of the
truth.

Luther's teacher at the convent, by whom we shall have
to understand the superintendent of the novices, had
already made a deep impression upon him, by reminding
him of the words of the Apostles' Creed about the forgive-
ness of sins, and representing to him, what Luther had
never ventured to apply to himself, that the Lord himself
had commanded us to hope. For this he referred him to
a passage in the writings of St. Bernard, where that
fervent preacher, imbued though he was in his theology
with the Church notions of the middle ages, insists on the
importance of this very faith in God's forgiveness, and
appeals to the words of St. Paul that man is justified by
grace through faith. Remarks of this kind sank into
Luther's mind, and took root there, though their fruit only
ripened by degrees. Of his teacher Arnoldi, also, he spoke
with admiration and gratitude, for the comfort he had
known how to impart to him.

But the one who at this time acquired by far the most
potent, wholesome, and lasting influence upon Luther, was
the Vicar-General, John von Staupitz. He was a remark-
able man, of a noble and pious disposition, and a refined
and far-seeing mind. A master of the forms of Scholastic
theology, he was also deeply read in Scripture ; he made
its teachings the special standard of his life, and was

e2

5^

LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

careful to enjoin others to do the same. He strove after an
inward, practical life in God, not confined to mere forms
and observances. Sharp conflicts and controversies were
not to his taste ; but mildly and discreetly he sought to
plant, in his own field of work, and to leave what he had
planted in God's name to grow up.

It was during his visits to Erfurt that Staupitz came in
contact with the gifted, thoughtful, and melancholy young

Fig. 5. — Staupitz.
(From the Portrait in St. Peter's Convent at Salzburg.)

monk. He treated Luther, both in conversation and letter,
with fatherly confidence, and Luther unlocked to him, as to
a father, his heart and its cares. Upon his wishing to confess
to him all his many small sins, Staupitz insisted first on dis-
tinguishing between what were really sins, and what were not ;
as for self-imagined sins, or such a patchwork of offences as
Luther laid before him, he would not listen to them ; that was
not the kind of seriousness, he would say, that God wished to
have. Luther tormented himself with a system of penance,
consisting of actual pain, punishments, and expiations.

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT 53

Staupitz taught him that repentance, in the Scriptural
meaning, was an inward change and conversion, which
must proceed from the love of holiness and of God ; and
that, for peace with God, he must not look to his own
good resolutions to lead a better life, which he had not the
strength to carry out, or to his own acts, which could never
satisfy the law of God, but must trust with patience to
God's forgiving mercy, and learn to see in Christ, whom
God permitted to suffer for the sins of man, not the threaten-
ing Judge, but rather the loving Saviour. To Christ above
all he referred him, when Luther pondered on the secret
eternal will of God, and was near despair. God's eternal
purpose, he would say, shines clearly in the wounds of
Christ. Did his temptations not cease, he bade him see in
them means to draw him to the love of God. The thoughts
of Staupitz turned in this on the temptations to pride,
which might themselves be the means of curing that pride,
and on the great things for which God wished to prepare
him. In a simple, practical manner, and from the expe-
riences of his own life, he would thus counsel and converse
with Luther. During the long course of a confidential
intercourse with his friend, his own theology in later years
became visibly developed, and his pupil of earlier days
became afterwards his teacher. But Luther, both then
and throughout his life, spoke of him with grateful affection
as his spiritual father, and thanked God that he had been
helped out of his temptations by Dr. Staupitz, without
whom he would have been swallowed up in them and
perished.

The first firm ground, however, for his convictions and
his inner life, and the foundation for all his later teachings
and works, was found by Luther in his own persevering
study of Holy Writ. In this also he was encouraged by
Staupitz, who must, however, have been amazed at his
indefatigable industry and zeal. For the interpretation of
the Bible the means at his command were meagre in the

54 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

extreme. He himself explored in all cases to their very
centre the truths of Christian salvation and the highest
questions of moral and religious life. A single passage of
importance would occupy his thoughts for days. Signifi-
cant words, which he was not ahle yet to comprehend,
remained fixed in his mind, and he carried them silently
about with him. Thus it was, for example, as he tells us,
with the text in Ezekiel, ' I will not the death of a sinner,'
a passage which engrossed his earnest thoughts.

It was the third and last year of his monastic life at
Erfurt that brought with it, as far as we see, the decisive
turn for his inward struggles and labours.

In his second year, on May 2, 1507, he received, by
command of his superiors, his solemn ordination as a
priest. It was then for the first time since his entry into
the convent against his father's will, that the latter saw
him again. A convenient day was expressly arranged for
him, to enable him to take part personally at the solemnity.
He rode into Erfurt with a stately train of friends and
relations. But in his opinion of the step taken by his son
he remained unalterably firm. At the entertainment which
was given in the convent to the young priest, the latter
tried to extort from him a friendly remark upon the subject,
by asking him why he seemed so angry, when monastic life
was such a high and holy thing. His father replied in the
presence of all the company, ' Learned brothers, have you
not read in Holy Writ, that a man must honour father and
mother ? ' And on being reminded how his son had been
called, nay, compelled to this new life by heaven, ' Would
to God,' he answered, ' it were no spirit of the devil ! ' He
let them understand that he was there, eating and drinking,
as a matter of duty, but that he would much rather be
away.

To Luther, however, the post of high dignity to which
he was now promoted brought new fear and anxiety. He
had now to appear before God as a priest ; to have Christ's

AT THE CONVENT AT ERFURT. 55

Body, the very Christ Himself, and God actually present
before him at the mass on the altar ; to offer the Body ox
Christ as a sacrifice to the living and eternal God. Added
to this, there were a multitude of forms to observe, any
oversight wherein was a sin. All this so overpowered him
at his first mass, that he could scarcely remain at the altar ;
he was well-nigh, as he said afterwards, a dead man.

With these priestly functions he united an assiduous
devotion to his saints. By reading mass every morning,
he invoked twenty-one particular saints, whom he had
chosen as his helpers, taking three at a time, so as to
include them all within the week.

As regards the most important problems of life, his
study of the Scriptures gradually revealed to him the light
which determined his future convictions. The path had
already been pointed out to him by the words of St. Paul
quoted by St. Bernard. When looking back, at the close
of his life, on this his inward development, he tells us how
perplexed he had been by what St. Paul said of the
1 righteousness of God ' (Bom. i. 17). For a long time he
troubled himself about the expression, connecting it as he
did, according to the ruling theology of the day, with God's
righteousness in His punishment of sinners. Day and
night he pondered over the meaning and context of the
Apostle's words. But at length, he adds, God in His great
mercy revealed to him that what St. Paul and the gospel
proclaimed was a righteousness given freely to us by the
grace of God, Who forgives those who have faith in His
message of mercy, and justifies them, and gives them
eternal life. Therewith the gate of heaven was opened to
him, and thenceforth the whole remaining purport of God's
word became clearly revealed. Still it was only by degrees,
during the latter portion of his stay at Erfurt, and even
after that, that he arrived at this full perception of the
truth.

After their ordination the monks received the title of

56 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

fathers. Luther was not as yet relieved of the duty of
going out with a brother in quest of alms. But he was
soon employed in the more important business of the
Order, as, for instance, in transactions with a high official
of the Archbishop, in which he displayed great zeal for the
priesthood and for his Order.

With the Scholastic theology of his time, albeit even now
in a path marked out by himself, his keen understanding
and happy memory had enabled him to become thoroughly
familiar. He was scarcely twenty-five years old when
Staupitz, occupied with making provision for the newly-
founded university of Wittenberg, recognised in him the
right man for a professorial chair.

57

CHAPTER II.

CALL TO WITTENBERG. JOURNEY TO ROME.

Wittenberg was at that time the youngest of the German
universities. It was founded in 1502 by the Elector
Frederick the Wise of Saxony, a man pre-eminent among
the German princes, not only from his prudence and circum-
spection, but also from his faithful care for his country, his
genuine love for knowledge, and his deep religious feeling.
His country was not a rich one. Wittenberg itself was a
poor, badly-built town of about three thousand inhabitants.
But the Elector showed his wisdom above all by his right
choice of men whom he consulted in his work, and to whose
hands he entrusted its conduct. These, in their turn, were
very careful to select talented and trustworthy teachers for
the institution, which was to depend for its success on the
attractions offered by pure learning, and not those of out-
ward show and a luxurious style of life among the students.
The supervision of theology was entrusted by Frederick to
Staupitz, whom personally he held in high esteem, and
who, together with the learned and versatile Martin Pollich
of Melrichstadt, had already been the most active in his
service in promoting the foundation of the university.
Staupitz himself entered the theological faculty as its first
Dean. A constant or regular application to his duties was
rendered impossible by the multifarious business of his
Order, and the journeys it entailed. But in his very
capacity of Vicar-General, he strove to supply the theo-
logical needs of the university, and, by the means of educa-
tion thus offered, to assist the members of his Order.

58 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

Already before this the Augustinian monks had had a settle-
ment at Wittenberg, though little is known about it. A
handsome convent was built for them in 1506. In a short
time young inmates of this convent, and afterwards more
monks of the same Order who came from other parts, entered
the university as students and took academical degrees.
The patron saint of the University was, next to the Virgin
Mary, St. Augustine. Trutvetter of Erfurt became pro-
fessor of theology at Wittenberg in 1507. It was early in
the winter of 1508-9, when Staupitz, who had been re-elected
for the second time, was still dean of the theological faculty,
that Luther was suddenly and unexpectedly summoned
thither. He had to obey not merely the advice and wish of
an affectionate friend, but the will of the principal of his
Order.

As hitherto he had simply graduated as a master in
philosophy, and had not qualified himself academically for
a professor of theology, Luther at first was only called on
to lecture on those philosophical subjects which, as we have
seen, occupied his studies at Erfurt. Theologians, it is
true, had been entrusted with these duties, just as, here at
Wittenberg, the first dean of the philosophical faculty was
a theologian, and, in addition to that indeed, a member of
the Augustinian Order. But from the beginning, Luther
was anxious to exchange the province of philosophy for that
of theology, meaning thereby, as he expressed it, that
theology which searched into the very kernel of the nut,
the heart of the wheat, the marrow of the bones. So far,
he was already confident of having found a sure ground for
his Christian faith, as well as for his inner life, and having
found it, of being able to begin teaching others. Indeed,
while busily engaged in his first lectures on philosophy, he
was preparing to qualify himself for his theological degrees.
Here also he had to begin with his baccalaureate, compri-
sing in fact three different steps in the theological faculty,
each of which had to be reached by an examination and

CALL TO WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 59

disputation. The first step was that of bachelor of biblical
knowledge, which qualified him to lecture on the Holy
Scriptures. The second, or that of a Sententiarius, was
necessary for lecturing on the chief compendium of
mediaeval School-theology, the so-called Sentences of Peter
Lombardus, the due performance of which duty led to the
attainment of the third step. Above the baccalaureate,
with its three grades, came the rank of licentiate, which
gave the right to teach the whole of theology, and lastly the
formal, solemn admission as doctor of theology. Already, on
March 9, 1509, Luther had attained his first step in the
baccalaureate. At the end of six months he was qualified,
by the statutes of the university, to reach the second step,
and in the course of the next six months he actually
reached it.

But before gaining his new rights as a Sententiarius, he
was summoned back by the authorities of his Order to
Erfurt. The reason we do not know ; we only know that
fae entered the theological faculty there as professor, receiv-
ing, at the same time, the recognition of the academical
rank he had acquired at Wittenberg. At Erfurt he re-
mained about three terms, or eighteen months. After that
he returned to the university at Wittenberg. Trutvetter,
towards the end of 1510, had received a summons back
to Erfurt from Wittenberg. The void thus caused by his
summons away may have had something to do with
Luther's return thither. At all events his position at
Wittenberg was now vastly different from that which he
had previously held. No theologian, his superior in years
or fame, was any longer above him.

Ere long, however, Luther received another commission
from his Order ; a proof of the confidence reposed also in
his zeal for the Order, his practical understanding, and his
energy. It was about a matter in which, by Staupitz's
desire, other Augustinian convents in Germany were to
enter into a union with the reformed convents and the

60 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

Vicar of the Order. As opposition had been raised, Luther
in 1511, no doubt at the suggestion of Staupitz, was sent
on this matter to Borne, where the decision was to be given.
The journey thither and back may easily have taken six
weeks or more. According to rule and custom, two monks
were always sent out together, and a lay-brother was given
them for service and company. They used to make their
way on foot. In Borne the brethren of the Order were
received by the Augustinian monastery of Maria del Popolo.
Thus Luther went forth to the great capital of the world,
to the throne of the Head of the Church. He remained
there four weeks, discharging his duties, and surrounded by
all her monuments and relics of ecclesiastical interest.

No definite account of the result of the business he had
to transact, has been handed down to us. We only learn
that Staupitz, the Vicar of the Order, was afterwards on
friendly relations with the convents which had opposed his
scheme, and that he refrained from urging any more
unwelcome innovations. For us, however, the most im-
portant parts of this journey are the general observations
and experiences which Luther made in Italy, and, above
all, at the Papal chair itself. He often refers to them later
in his speeches and writings, in the midst of his work and
warfare, and he tells us plainly how important to him after-
wards was all that he there saw and heard.

The devotion of a pilgrim inspired him as he arrived at
the city which he had long regarded with holy veneration.
It had been his wish, during his troubles and heart- search-
ings, to make one day a regular and general confession
in that city. When he came in sight of her, he fell upon
the earth, raised his hands, and exclaimed ' Hail to thee,
holy Borne ! ' She was truly sanctified, he declared after-
wards, through the blessed martyrs, and their blood which
had flowed within her walls. But he added, with indigna-
tion at himself, how he had run like a crazy saint on a
pilgrimage through all the churches and catacombs, and

CALL TO WITTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 61

had believed what turned out to be a mass of rank lies and
impostures. He would gladly then have done something
for the welfare of his friends' souls by mass-reading and
acts of devotion in places of particular sanctity. He felt
downright sorry, he tells us, that his parents were still
alive, as he might have performed some special act to
release them from the pains of purgatory.

But in all this he found no real peace of mind : on the
contrary, his soul was stirred to the consciousness of
another way of salvation which had already begun to
dawn upon him. Whilst climbing, on his knees and in
prayer, the sacred stairs which were said to have led to the
Judgment-hall of Pilate, and whither, to this day, wor-
shippers are invited by the promise of Papal absolutions,
he thought of the words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the
Romans (i. 17), ' The just shall live by faith. As for any
spiritual enlightenment and consolation, he found none
among the priests and monks of Rome. He was struck
indeed with the external administration of business and the
nice arrangement of legal matters at the Papal see. But
he was shocked by all that he observed of the moral and
religious life and doings at this centre of Christianity ; the
immorality of the clergy, and particularly of the highest
dignitaries of the Church, who thought themselves highly
virtuous if they abstained from the very grossest offences ;
the wanton levity with which the most sacred names and
things were treated ; the frivolous unbelief, openly expressed
among themselves by the spiritual pastors and masters
of the Church. He complains of the priests scram-
bling through mass as if they were juggling ; while he
was reading one mass, he found they had finished seven :
one of them once urged him to be quick by saying ' Get
on, get on, and make haste to send her Son home to
our Lady.' He heard jokes even made about the priests
when consecrating the elements at mass, repeating in Latin
the words ' Bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain :

62 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

wine thou art, and wine thou shalt remain.' He often re-
marked in later years how they would apply in derision the
term ' good Christian ' to those who were stupid enough to
believe in Christian truth, and to be scandalised by any-
thing said to the contrary. No one, he declared, would
believe what villanies and shameful doings were then in
vogue, if they had not seen and heard them with their own
eyes and ears. But the truth of his testimony is confirmed
by those very men whose life and conduct so shocked and
revolted him. He must have been indignant, moreover, at
the contemptuous tone in which the ' stupid Germans ' or
1 German beasts ' were spoken of, as persons entitled to no
notice or respect at Eome.

He was astonished at the pomp and splendour which
surrounded the Pope when he appeared in public. He speaks,
as an eye-witness, of the processions, like those of a triumph-
ing monarch. But the horrible stories were then still fresh
at Eome of the late Pope Alexander and his children, the
murder of his brother, the poisoning, the incest, and other
crimes. Of the then Pope, Julius II., Luther heard nothing
reported, except that he managed his temporal affairs with
energy and shrewdness, made war, collected money, and
contracted and dissolved, entered into and broke, political
alliances. At the time of Luther's visit, he was just return-
ing from a campaign in which he had conducted in person
the sanguinary siege of a town. Luther did not fail to observe
that he had established in the sacred city an excellent body
of police, and that he caused the streets to be kept clean, so
that there was not much pestilence about. But he looked
upon him simply as a man of the world, and afterwards
fulminated against him as a strong man of blood.

All these experiences at Borne did not, however, then
avail to shake Luther's faith in the authority of the hierarchy
which had such unworthy ministers ; though, later on, when
he was forced to attack the Papacy itself, they made it
easier for him to shape his judgment and conclusions. ' I

CALL TO WLTTENBERG.— JOURNEY TO ROME. 63

would not have missed seeing Kome,' he then declared, * for
a hundred thousand florins, for I might then have felt
some apprehension that I had done injustice to the Pope.
But as we see, we speak.'

During his visit he also roamed about among the ruins
of the ancient capital of the world, and was astonished at
the remains of bygone worldly splendour. The works of
the new art which Pope Julius was then beginning to call
into existence, did not appear to have particularly engaged
his attention. The Pope was then progressing with the
building of the new Church of St. Peter. The indulgence,
of which the proceeds were to enable the completion of this
vast undertaking, led afterwards to the struggle between the
Augustinian monk and the Papacy.

64 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

CHAPTEE III.

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER, TO 1517

On his return to his Wittenberg convent, Luther was made
sub-prior. At the university he entered fully upon all the
rights and duties of a teacher of theology, having been
made licentiate and doctor. Here again it was Staupitz,
his friend and spiritual superior, who urged this step :
Luther's own wish was to leave the university and devote
himself entirely to the office of his Order. The Elector
Frederick, who had been struck with Luther by hearing one
of his sermons, took this, the first opportunity, of showing
him personal sympathy, by offering to defray the expenses
of his degree. Luther was reluctant to accept this, and
years after he was fond of showing his friends a pear-
tree in the courtyard of the convent, under which he dis-
cussed the matter with Staupitz, who, however, insisted on
his demand. He must have felt the more sensibly the
responsibility of his new task, from his own personal
strivings after new and true theological light. It was a
satisfaction to him afterwards, amidst the endless and
unexpected labours and contests which his vocation brought
with it, to reflect that he had undertaken it, not from choice,
but so entirely from obedience. ' Had I known what I now
know,' he would exclaim in his later trials and dangers, ' not
ten horses would ever have dragged me into it.'

After the necessary preliminaries and customary forms,
he received on October 4, 1512, the rights of a licentiate,
and on the 18th and 19th was solemnly admitted to the
degree of doctor. As licentiate he promised to defend with

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 65

all his power the truth of the gospel, and he must have
had this oath particularly in his mind when he afterwards
appealed to the fact of his having sworn on his beloved
Bible to preach it faithfully and in its purity. His oath as
doctor, which followed, bound him to abstain from doctrines
condemned by the Church and offensive to pious ears.
Obedience to the Pope was not required at Wittenberg, as it
was at other universities.

Others, besides Staupitz, expected from the beginning
something original and remarkable from the new professor.
Pollich, the first great representative of Wittenberg in its
early days, and who died in the following year, said of him,
* This monk will revolutionise the whole system of Scholastic
teaching.' He seems, like others whom we hear of after-
wards, to have been especially struck with the depth of
Luther's eyes, and thought that they must reveal the
working of a wonderful mind.

A new theology, in fact, presented itself at once to
Luther in the subject which, as doctor, he chose and
exclusively adhered to in his lectures. This was the Bible,
the very book of which the study was so generally under-
valued in School-theology, which so many doctors of
theology scarcely knew, and which was usually so hastily
forsaken for those Scholastic sentences and a corresponding
exposition of ecclesiastical dogmas.

Luther began with lectures upon the Psalms. It is
his first work on theology which has remained to pos-
terity. We still possess a Latin text of the Psalter fur-
nished with running notes for his lectures, and also his
own manuscript of those lectures themselves. In these
also he states that his task was imposed upon him by a
distinct command: he frankly confessed that as yet he
was insufficiently acquainted with the Psalms; a com-
parison of his notes and lectures shows further, how
continually he was engaged in prosecuting these studies.
His explanations indeed fall short of what is required at

F

66 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

present, and even of what he himself required later on. He
still follows wholly the mediaeval practice of thinking it neces-
sary to find, throughout the words of the Psalmist, pictorial
allegories relating to Christ, His work of salvation, and His
people. But he was thus enabled to propound, while
explaining the Psalms, the fundamental principles of that
doctrine of salvation which for some years past had taken
such hold on his inmost thoughts and so engrossed his
theological studies. And in addition to the fruits of his;
researches in Scripture, especially in the writings of
St. Paul, we observe the use he made of the works of
St. Augustine. His acquaintance with the latter did not
commence until years after he had joined the Order, and
had acquired independently an intimate knowledge of the
Bible. It was mainly through them that he was enabled
to comprehend the teaching of St. Paul, and to find how
the doctrine of Divine grace, which we have already
alluded to, was based on Pauline authority. Thus the
founder of the Order became, as it were, his first teacher
among human theologians.

From his lectures on the Psalms Luther proceeded a
few years later to an exposition of those Epistles which
were to him the main source of his new belief in God's
mercy and justice, namely, the Epistles to the Piomans and
the Galatians.

In the convent also at Wittenberg, the direction of
the theological studies of the brethren was entrusted to
Luther. His fellow-labourer in this field was his friend
John Lange, who had been with him also in the convent at
Erfurt. He was distinguished for a rare knowledge of
Greek, and was therefore a valuable help even to Luther,
to whom he was indebted in turn for a prolific advance in
learning of another kind. Closely allied with Luther also
was "Wenzeslaus Link, the prior of the convent, wTho ob-
tained his degree as doctor of the theological faculty a year
before him. These men were drawn together by similarity

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 67

of ideas, and by a strong and enduring personal iriend-
ship ; they had possibly been acquainted at the school at
Magdeburg. The new life and activdty awakened at Witten-
berg attracted clever young monks more and more from a
distance. The convent, not yet quite finished, had scarcely
room enough for them, or means for their maintenance.

When in 1515 the associated convents had to choose at
Gotha, on a chapter-day, their new authorities, Luther was
appointed, Staupitz being still Vicar-General, the Provin-
cial Vicar for Meissen and Thuringia. He obtained by this
office the superintendence of eleven convents, to which in
the next year he paid the customary visitation. In person,
by word of mouth, and equally by letters, we see him
labouring with self-sacrificing zeal for the spiritual welfare
of those committed to his care, for the correction of bad
monks, for the comfort of those oppressed with temptations,
as also for the temporal and domestic, and even the legal
business of the different convents.

In addition to his academical duties, he performed
double service as a preacher. In the first place he had to
preach in his convent, as he had already done at Erfurt.
When the new convent at Wittenberg was opened, the
church was not yet ready ; and in a small, poor, tumble-
down chapel close by, made up of wood and clay, he began
to preach the gospel and unfold the power of his eloquence.
When, shortly after, the town-priest of Wittenberg became
weak and ailing, his congregation pressed Luther to occupy
the pulpit in his place. He performed these different duties
with alacrity, energy, and power. He would preach some-
times daily for a week together, sometimes even three times
in one day; during Lent in 1517 he gave two sermons
every day in addition to his lectures at the university.
The zeal which he displayed in proclaiming the gospel to
his hearers in church, was quite as new and peculiar to
himself as the lofty interest he imparted to his professorial
lectures on the Scriptures.

P2

68 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

Melancthon says of these first lectures by Luther on
the Psalms and the Epistle to the Eomans, that after a
long and dark night, a new day was now seen to dawn on
Christian doctrine. In these lectures Luther pointed out
the difference between the law and the gospel. He refuted
the errors, then predominant in the Church and schools,
the old teaching of the Pharisees, that men could earn for-
giveness by their works, and that mere outward penance
would justify them in the sight of God. Luther called
men back to the Son of God ; and just as John the
Baptist pointed to the Lamb of God who bore our sins,
so Luther showed how, for his Son's sake, God in His
mercy will forgive us our sins, and how we must accept
such mercy in faith.

In fact, the whole groundwork of that Christian faith
on which the inner life of the Reformer rests, for which he
fought, and which gave him strength and fresh courage for
the fight, lies already before us in his lectures and sermons
during those years, and increases in clearness and decision.
The ' new day ' had, in reality, broken upon his eyes.
That fundamental truth which he designated later as the
article by which a Christian Church must stand or fall,
stands here already firmly established, before he in the least
suspects that it would lead him to separate from the Catholic
Church, or that his adopting it would occasion a reconstruc-
tion of the Church. The primary question around which
everything else centred, remained always this — how he, the
sinful man, could possibly stand before God and obtain
salvation. With this came the question as to the righteous-
ness of God ; and now he was no longer terrified by the
avenging justice of God, wherewith He threatens the
sinner ; but he recognised and saw the meaning of that
righteousness declared in the gospel (Rom. i. 17, iii. 25),
by which the merciful God justifies the faithful, in that He
of His own grace re-establishes them in His sight, and
effects an inward change, and lets them thenceforth, like

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 69

children, enjoy His fatherly love and blessing. Luther,
in teaching now that justification proceeds from faith,
rejects, above all, the notion that man by any outward acts
of his own can ever atone for his sins and merit the favour
of God. He reminds us, moreover, with regard to moral
works especially, that good fruits always presuppose a good
tree, upon which alone they can grow, and that, in like
manner, goodness can only proceed from a man, if and
when, in his inward being, his inward thoughts, tenden-
cies, and feelings, he has already become good ; he must
be righteous himself, in a word, before he works righteous-
ness. But it is faith, and faith alone, which in the inward
man determines real communion with God. Then only,
and gradually, can a man's own inner being, trusting to
God, and by means of His imparted grace, become truly
renovated and purged from sin. Had Luther, indeed,
made salvation depend on such a righteousness, derived
from a man's own works, as should satisfy the holy God,
the very consciousness of his own sins and infirmities
would have made him despair of such salvation. Moreover,
all the working of the Holy Spirit, and His gifts in our
hearts, presuppose that we are already participators of the
forgiving mercy and grace of God, and are received into
communion with Him. To this, as Luther teaches after
St. Paul, we can only attain through faith in the joyful
message of His mercy, in His compassion, and in His Son,
whom He has sent to be our Redeemer. Thus he speaks
of faith, even in his earliest notes on the Psalter, as the
keystone, the marrow, the short road. The worst enemy,
in his sight, is self-righteousness ; he confesses having had
to combat it himself.

Herein also Luther found the theology of St. Augustine
in accord with the testimony of the great Apostle. While
studying that theology, his conviction of the power of sin
and the powerlessness of man's own strength to overcome it,
grew more and more decided. But St. Paul taught him to

70 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

understand that belief somewhat differently to St. Augus-
tine. To Luther it was not merely a recognition of objec-
tive truths or historical facts. What he understood by
it, with a clearness and decision which are wanting in St.
Augustine's teaching, was the trusting of the heart in the
mercy offered by the message of salvation, the personal
confidence in the Saviour Christ and in that which He has
gained for us. With this faith, then, and by the merits
and mediation of the Saviour in whom this faith is placed,
we stand before God, we have already the assurance of
being known by God and of being saved, and we are
partakers of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies more and more
the inner man. According to St. Augustine, on the con-
trary, and to all Catholic theologians who followed his
teaching, what will help us before God is rather that in-
ward righteousness which God Himself gives to man by
His Holy Spirit and the workings of His grace, or, as the
expression was, the righteousness infused by God. The
good, therefore, already existing in a Christian is so highly
esteemed that he can thereby gain merit before the just
God and even do more than is . required of him. But
to a conscience like Luther's, which applied so severe a
standard to human virtue and works, and took such stern
count of past and present sins, such a doctrine could bring
no assurance of forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. It was
in faith alone that Luther had found this assurance, and
for it he needed no merits of his own. The happy spirit
of the child of God, by its own free impulse, would produce in
a Christian the genuine good fruit pleasing in God's sight.
It was a long time before Luther himself became aware
how he differed on this point from his chief teacher
amongst theologians. But we see the difference appear at
the very root and beginning of his new doctrine of salva-
tion ; and it comes out finally, based on apostolic authority,
clear and sharp, in the theology of the Reformer.

And inseparably connected with this is what Melancthon

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 71

said about the Law and the Gospel. Luther himself always
declared in later days, that the whole understanding of the
truth of Christian salvation, as revealed by God, depends
on a right perception of the relation of one to the other,
and this very relation he explained, shortly before the
beginning of his contest with the Church, upon the
authority of St. Paul's Epistles. The Law is to him the
epitome of God's demands with regard to will and works,
which still the sinner cannot fulfil. The Gospel is the
blessed offer and announcement of that forgiving mercy of
God which is to be accepted in simple faith. By the Law
says Luther, the sinner is judged, condemned, killed ; he
himself had to toil and disquiet himself under it, as though
he were in the hands of a gaoler and executioner. The
Gospel first lifts up those who are crushed, and makes
them alive by the faith which the good message awakens
in their hearts. But God works in both ; in the one, a
work which to Him, the God of love, would properly be
strange ; in the other, His own work of love, for which,
however, he has first prepared the sinner by the former.

Whilst Luther was prosecuting his labours in this path,
he became acquainted in 1516 with the sermons of the
pious, deep-thinking theologian Tauler, who died in 1361 ;
and at the same time an old theological tract, written not
long after Tauler, fell into his hands, to which he gave the
name of ' German Theology.' Now for the first time, and
in the person of their noblest representatives, he was con-
fronted with the Christian and theological views which
were commonly designated as the practical German mysti-
cism of the middle ages. Here, instead of the value which
the mediaeval Church, so addicted to externals, ascribed to
outward acts and ordinances, he found the most devout
absorption in the sentiments of real Christian religion.
Instead of the barren, formal expositions and logical opera-
tions of the scholastic intellect, he found a striving and
wrestling of the whole inner man, with all the mind and

72 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

will, after direct communion and union with God, who
Himself seeks to draw into this union the soul devoted to
Him, and makes it become like to himself. Such a depth
of contemplation and such fervour of a Christian mind
Luther had not found even in an Augustine. He rejoiced
to see this treasure written in his native German, and it
certainly was the noblest German he had ever read. He
felt himself marvellously impressed by this theology; he
knew of no sermons, so he wrote to a friend, which agreed
more faithfully with the gospel than those of Tauler. He
published that tract — then not quite complete — in 1516,
and again afterwards in 1518. It was the first publication
from his hand. His further sermons and writings show
how deeply he was imbued with its contents. The in-
fluences he here rece ved had a lasting effect on the forma-
tion of his inner life and his theology

With regard to sin, he now learned that its deepest roots
and fundamental character lay in our own wills, in self-love
and selfishness. To enjoy communion with God it is neces-
sary that the heart should put away all worldliness, and let
its natural will be dead, so that God alone may live and work
in us. So, as he says on the title-page of ' German Theo-
logy,' shall Adam die in us and Christ be made alive. But
the essential peculiarity of Luther's doctrine of salvation,
grounded as it was directly on Scripture, still remained intact,
despite the theology no less of the mystics than of Augustine,
and, after passing through these influences, developed its
full independence during his struggles as a Reformer. For
this communion with God he never thought it necessary, as
the mystics maintained, to renounce one's personality and
retire altogether from the world and things temporal : a
purely passive attitude towards God, and a blessedness con-
sisting in such an attitude, was not his highest or ultimate
ideal. A man's personality, he held, should only be de-
stroyed so far as it resists the will of God, and dares to
assert its self-righteousness and merits before Him. The

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 73

road to real communion with God was always that ' short
road ' of faith, in which the contrite sinner, who feels his
personality crushed by the consciousness of sin, grasps the
hand of Divine mercy, and is lifted up by it and restored.
Christ was manifested, as the mystics said with Scripture,
in order that the man's personality should die with Him,
and imitate Him in self-renunciation. But the faith,
on which Luther insisted, saw in Christ above all the
Saviour who has died for us, and who pleads for us before
God with His holy life and conduct, that the faithful may
obtain through Him reconciliation and salvation. What
the Saviour is to us in this respect Luther has thus sum-
marised in words of his own : ' Lord Jesus,' he says, ' Thou
hast taken to Thyself what is mine, and given to me what
is Thine.' The main divergence between Luther and the
German mysticism of the middle ages consists primarily
in a different estimate of the general relations between
God and the moral personality of man. With the mystics,
behind the Christian and religious, lay a metaphysical con-
ception of God, as a Being of absolute power, superior to all
destiny, apparently rich in attributes, but in reality an empty
Abstraction, — above all, a Being who suffers nothing finite to
exist in independence of Himself. With Luther the funda-
mental conception of God remained this, that He is the
perfect Good, and that, in His perfect holiness, He is Love.
This is the God by whom the sinner who has faith is re-
stored and justified. From this conception as a starting-
point, Luther acquired fresh strength and energy for
advancing in the fight, whilst the pious mystic remained
passively and quietly behind. From this also he learned
to realise Christian liberty and moral duty in regard to
daily life and its vocations, whilst the mystics remained
shut off altogether from the world. The intimate con-
nection between the conclusions to which the views of
Tauler tended, and the principles from which Luther
started, is shown further by the superior attraction which

74 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

those sermons, so warmly recommended by Luther, con-
tinued to exercise upon members of the Evangelical, com-
pared with those of the Catholic Church.

What Christ has suffered and done for us, and how we
gain through Him the righteousness of God, peace, and
real life, — these thoughts of practical religion pervaded
now all Luther's discourses. To the saving knowledge of
these facts he endeavoured to direct his lectures, and
discarded the dogmatical inquiries and subtle investiga-
tions and speculations of School-theology. At first, and
even in his sermons at the convent, he had employed
in his exposition of Biblical truths, as was the custom of
learned preachers, philosophical expressions and references
to Aristotle and famous Scholastics. But latterly, and at
the time we are speaking of, he had entirely left this off;
and, as regards the form of his sermons, instead of a stiff,
logical construction of sentences, he employed that simple,
lively, powerful eloquence which distinguished him above
all preachers of his time. In 1516 and 1517 he delivered
a course of sermons on the Ten Commandments and the
Lord's Prayer before his town congregation, with the view
of showing the connection of the truths of Christian re-
ligion. He further had printed in 1517, for Christian
readers generally, an explanation of the seven penitential
psalms. He wished, as the title stated, to expound them
thoroughly in their Scriptural meaning, for setting forth the
grace of Christ and God, and enabling true self-knowledge.
It is the first of his writings, published by himself, and
in the German language, which we possess; for the later
lectures that were published were delivered by him in
Latin, and the first sermons we have of his were also
written by him in that language. We give here the title
and preface from the original print.

Luther had now become possessed with a burning desire
to refute, by means of the truth he had newly learned, the
teaching and system of that School-theology on which he

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76 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

himself had wasted so much time and labour, and by which
he saw that same truth darkened and obstructed. He first
attacked Aristotle, the heathen philosopher from whom this
theology, he said, received its empty and perverted for-
malism, whose system of physics was worthless, and who,
especially in his conception of moral life and moral good,
was blind, since he knew nothing of the essence and ground
of true righteousness. The Scholastics, as Luther himself
remarked against them, had failed signally to understand
the genuine original philosophy of Aristotle. But the real
greatness and significance which must be allowed to that
philosophy, in the development of human thought and
knowledge, were far removed from those profound ques-
tions of Christian morality and religion which engrossed
Luther's mind, and from those truths to which he again
had to testify. In theses which formed the subject of dis-
putation among his followers, Luther expressed with par-
ticular acuteness his own doctrine, and that of Augustine,
concerning the inability of man, and the grace of God, and
his opposition to the previously dominant Schoolmen and
their Aristotle. He was anxious also to hear the verdict of
others, particularly of his teacher Trutvetter, upon his new
polemics.

He already could boast that, at Wittenberg, his, or as
he called it, the Augustinian theology, had found its way
to victory. It was adopted by the theologians who had
taught there, though wholly in the old Scholastic fashion,
before him, especially by Carlstadt, who soon strove to
outbid him in this new direction, and who, later on, in
his own zeal for reform, fell into disputes with the great
Keformer himself, and also by Nicholas von Amsdorf, whom
we shall see afterwards at Luther's side as his personal
friend and strongest supporter. At Erfurt, Luther's former
convent, his friend and sympathiser Lange was now prior,
having returned thither from Wittenberg, where indeed
his former teachers could not yet accommodate them-

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER.

11

selves to his new ways. Of great importance to Luther's
work and position was his friendship with George Spalatin
(properly Burkardt of Spelt), the court preacher and
private secretary of the Elector Frederick, a conscientious,
clear-minded theologian, and a man of varied culture and
calm, thoughtful judgment. He was of the same age as
Luther ; he had been with him at Erfurt as a fellow-
student, and at Wittenberg afterwards, whither he came as

Fig. 7. — Spalatin. (From L. Cranach's Portrait.)

tutor to the prince, and had remained on terms of in-
timacy with him. To Luther he proved an upright, warm-
hearted friend, and to the Elector a faithful and sagacious
adviser. It was mainly due to his influence that the
Elector showed such continued favour to Luther, marks of
which he displayed by presents, such as that of a piece of
richly-wrought cloth, which Luther thought almost too good
for a monk's frock. Spalatin had also been a member of
that circle of ' poets ' at Erfurt ; he kept up his connection

78 LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

with them, and corresponded with Erasmus, the head of the
Humanists, and thus acted as a medium of communication
for Luther in this quarter. Elsewhere in Germany we find
the theology of Augustine or of St. Paul, as represented by
Luther, taking root first among his friends at Nuremberg ;
in 1517 W. Link came there as prior of the Augustinian
convent.

We have seen how Luther as a student associated with
the young Humanists at Erlurt, and now, whilst striving
further on that road of theology which he had marked out
for himself, he was still accessible to the general interests of
learning as represented by the Humanistic movement. He
made the acquaintance, at least by letter, of the celebrated
Mutianus Bums of Gotha, whom those ' j)oets ' honoured
as their famous master, and with whom Lange and Spalatin
maintained a respectful intercourse. When the Humanist
John Eeuchlin, then the first Hebrew scholar in Germany,
was declared a heretic by zealous theologians and monks,
on account of the protests he raised against the burning of
the Eabbinical books of the Jews, and a fierce quarrel broke
out in consequence, Luther, on being asked by Spalatin for
his opinion, declared himself strongly for the Humanists
against those who, being gnats themselves, tried to swallow
camels. His heart, he said, was so full of this matter that
his tongue could not find utterance. Still, the bold satire
with which his former college friend Crotus and other
Humanists lashed their opponents and held them up to
ridicule, as in the famous ' Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum,
was not to Luther's taste at all. The matter was to him
far too serious for such treatment.

The first place, among the men who revived the
knowledge of antiquity, and strove to apply that knowledge
for the benefit of their own times and particularly of
theology, belongs undoubtedly to Erasmus, from his com-
prehensive learning, his refinement of mind, and his in-
defatigable industry. Just hen, in 1516, he brought out

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER

79

a remarkable edition of the New Testament, with a transla-
tion and explanatory comments, which forms in fact an
epoch in its history. Luther recognised his high talents and
services, and was anxious to see him exercise the influence

Fig. 8. — Erasmus. (From the Portrait by A. Diirer.)

he deserved. He speaks of him in a letter to Spalatin as
' our Erasmus.' But nevertheless he steadily asserted his
own independence, and reserved the right of free judgment
about him. Two things he lamented in him ; fixst of all

8o LUTHER AS MONK AND PROFESSOR.

that he lacked, as was the case, the comprehension of that
fundamental doctrine of St. Paul as to human sin and
righteousness by faith ; and further, that he made even the
errors of the Church, which should be a source of genuine
sorrow to every Christian, a subject of ridicule. He sought,
however, to keep his opinion of Erasmus to himself, to
avoid giving occasion to his jealous and unscrupulous
enemies to malign him.

Bitterness and ill-will, aroused by Luther's words and
works, were already not wanting among the followers of the
hitherto dominant views of theology and the Church. But
of any separation from the Church, her authority and her
fundamental forms, he had as yet no intention or idea.
Nor, on the other hand, did his enemies take occasion to
obtain sentence of expulsion against him, until he found
himself forced to conclusions which threatened the power
and the income of the hierarchy.

As yet he had not expressed or entertained a thought
against the ordinances which enslaved every Christian to
the priesthood and its power. He certainly showed, in his
new doctrine of salvation, the way which leads the soul, by
simple faith in the message of mercy sent to all alike, to
its God and Saviour. But he had no idea of disputing
that everyone should confess to the priests, receive from
them absolution, and submit to all the penances and ordi-
nances ordained by the Church. And in that very doctrine
of salvation he knew that he was at one with Augustine,
the most eminent teacher of the Western Church, whilst the
opposite views, however dominant in point of fact, had never
yet received any formal sanction of the Church. Zealously,
indeed, he soon exposed many practical abuses and errors
in the religious life of the Church. But hitherto these were
only such as had been long before complained of and com-
bated by others, and which the Church had never expressly
declared as essential parts of her own system. He gave
vent freely to his opinions about the superstitious worship of

LUTHER AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER. 81

saints, about absurd legends, about the heathen practice of
invoking the saints for temporal welfare or success. But
praying to the saints to intercede for us with God he still
justified against the heresy originating with Huss, and with
fervour he invoked the Virgin from the pulpit. He was
anxious that the priests and bishops should do their duty
much better and more conscientiously than was the case,
and that instead of troubling themselves about worldly
matters, they should care for the good of souls, and feed
their flocks with God's word. He saw in the office of
bishop, from the difficulties and temptations it involved, an
office fraught with danger, and one therefore that he did
not wish for his Staupitz. But the Divine origin and
Divine right of the hierarchical offices of pope, bishop, and
priest, and the infallibility of the Church, thus governed,
he held inviolably sacred. The Hussites who broke from
her were to him ' sinful heretics.' Nay, at that time he
used the very argument by which afterwards the Bomish
Church thought to crush the principles and claims of the
Beformation, namely, that if we deny that power of the
Church and Bapacy, any man may equally say that he is
filled with the Holy Ghost ; everyone will claim to be his
own master, and there will be as many Churches as heads.
As yet he was only seeking to combat those abuses
which were outside the spirit and teaching of the Catholic
Church, when the scandals of the traffic in indulgences
called him to the field of battle. And it was only when in
this battle the Bope and the hierarchy sought to rob him of
his evangelical doctrine of salvation, and of the joy and
comfort he derived from the knowledge of redemption by
Christ, that, from his stand on the Bible, he laid his hands
upon the strongholds of this Churchdom.

82

PAET HI.

THE BREACH WITH ROME, UP TO THE DIET OF
WORMS. 1517-21.

CHAPTEE I.

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES.

The first occasion for the struggle which led to the great
division in the Christian world was given by that magni-
ficent edifice of ecclesiastical splendour intended by the
popes as the creation of the new Italian art ; by the build-
ing, in a word, of St. Peter's Church, which had already
been commenced when Luther was at Piome. Indulgences
were to furnish the necessary means. Julius II. had now
been succeeded on the Papal chair by Leo X. So far as
concerned the encouragement of the various arts, the
revival of ancient learning, and the opening up, by that
means, to the cultivated and upper classes of society of a
spring of rich intellectual enjoyment, Leo would have been
just the man for the new age. But whilst actively engaged
in these pursuits and pleasures, he remained indifferent to
the care and the spiritual welfare of his flock, whom as
Christ's vicar he had undertaken to feed. The frivolous
tone of morals that ruled at the Papal see was looked
upon as an element of the new culture. As regards the
Christian faith, a blasphemous saying is reported of Leo,
how profitable had been the fable of Christ. He had no
scruples in procuring money for the new church, which, as

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES.

*3

he said, was to protect and glorify the bones of the holy
Apostles, by a dirty traffic, pernicious to the soul. Mean-
while, the popes were not ashamed to appropriate freely to
their own needs that indulgence money, which was nomin-
ally for the Church and for other objects, such as the war
against the Turks.

In order to appreciate the nature of these indulgences
and of Luther's attack upon them, it is necessary first to
realise more exactly the significance which the teachers of
the Church ascribed to them. The simple statement that
absolution or forgiveness
of sins was sold for
money, must in itself be
offence enough to any
moral Christian con-
science ; and we can only
wonder that Luther pro-
ceeded so prudently and
gradually towards his ob-
ject of getting rid of in-
dulgences altogether. But
the arguments by which
they were explained and
justified did not sound
so simple or concise.
Forgiveness of sins, it was
maintained, must be gained by penance, namely, by the so-
called sacrament of penance, including the acts of private con-
fession and priestly absolution. In this the father-confessor
promised to him who had confessed his sins, absolution for
them, whereby his guilt was forgiven and he was freed from
eternal punishment. A certain contrition of the heart was
required from him, even if only imperfect, and proceeding
perhaps solely from the fear of punishment, but which never-
theless was deemed sufficient, its imperfection being sup-
plied by the sacrament. But though absolved, he had still to

Q 2

Fig. 9.— Leo X.
(From his Portrait by Raphael.)

84 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

discharge heavy burdens of temporal punishment, penances
imposed by the Church, and chastisements which, in the re-
mission of eternal punishment, God in His righteousness still
laid upon him. If he failed to satisfy these penances in this
life, he must, even if no longer in danger of hell, atone for
the rest in the torments of the fire of purgatory. The indul-
gence now came in to relieve him. The Church was content
with easier tasks, as, at that time, with a donation to the
sacred edifice at Eome. And even this was made to rest on
a certain basis of right. The Church, it was said, had to
dispose of a treasure of merits which Christ and the saints,
by their good works, had accumulated before the righteous
God, and those riches were now to be so disposed of by
Christ's representatives, that they should benefit the buyer
of indulgences. In this manner penances which otherwise
would have to be endured for years were commuted into
small donations of money, quickly paid off. The contrition
required for the forgiveness of sins was not altogether
ignored ; as, for instance, in the official announcements of
indulgences, and in the letters or certificates granting
indulgences to individuals in return for payment. But in
those documents, as also in the sermons exhorting the
multitude to purchase, the chief stress, so far as possible,
was laid upon the payment. The confession, and with it
the contrition, was also mentioned, but nothing was said
about the personal remission of sins depending on this
rather than on the money. Perfect forgiveness of sins was
announced to him who, after having confessed and felt
contrition, had thrown his contribution into the box. For
the souls in purgatory nothing was required but money
offered for them by the living. ' The moment the money
tinkles in the box, the soul springs up out of purgatory.' A
special tariff was arranged for the commission of particular
sins, as, for example, six ducats for adultery.

The traffic in indulgences for the building of St. Peter's
was delegated by commission from the Pope, over a large

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 85

part of Germany, to Albert, Archbishop of Mayence and
Magdeburg. We shall meet with this great prince of the
Church, as now in connection with the origin of the Re-
formation, so during its subsequent course. Albert, the
brother of the Elector of Brandenburg, and cousin of the
Grand-Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, stood in

Fig. 10. — The Archbishop Albert. (From Durer's engraving.)

1517, though only twenty- seven years old, already at the
head of those two great ecclesiastical provinces of Germany ;
Wittenberg also belonged to his Magdeburg diocese. Raised
to such an eminence and so rapidly by good fortune, he was
filled with ambitious thoughts. He troubled himself little
about theology. He loved to shine as the friend of the new

86 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Humanistic learning, especially of an Erasmus, and as
patron of the fine arts, particularly of architecture, and to
keep a court the splendour of which might correspond with
his own dignity and love of art. For this his means were
inadequate, especially as, on entering upon his Archbishopric
of Mayence, he had had to pay, as was customary, a heavy
sum to the Pope for the pallium given for the occasion.
For this he had been forced to borrow thirty thousand
gulden from the house of Fugger at Augsburg, and he found
his aspirations incessantly crippled by want of money and
by debts. He succeeded at last in striking a bargain with
the Pope, by which he was allowed to keep half of the
profits arising from the sale of indulgences, in order to
repay the Fuggers their loan. Behind the preacher of
indulgences, who announced God's mercy to the paying
believers, stood the agents of that commercial house, who
collected their share for their principals. The Dominican
monk, John Tetzel, a profligate man, whom the Archbishop
had appointed his sub-commissioner, drove the largest trade
in this business with an audacity and a power of popular
declamation well suited to his work.

Contemporaries have described the lofty and well-
ordered pomp with which such a commissioner entered on
the performance of his exalted duties. Priests, monks, and
magistrates, schoolmasters and scholars, men, women, and
children, wTent forth in procession to meet him, with songs
and ringing of bells, with flags and torches. They entered
the church together amidst the pealing of the organ. In
the middle of the church, before the altar, was erected a
large red cross, hung with a silken banner which bore the
Papal arms. Before the cross was placed a large iron
chest to receive the money ; specimens of these chests are
still shown in many places. Daily, by sermons, hymns,
processions round the cross, and other means of attraction,
the people were invited and urged to embrace this incom-
parable offer of salvation. It was arranged that auricular

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES.

&7

m mm wolfelig tper&en <*^

Fig. 11. — Title-page of a Pamphlet written at the beginning of the BeformatioN!
with an Illustration showing the Sale of Indulgences.

88 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

confession should be taken wholesale. The main object
was the payment, in return for which the ' contrite ' sinners
received a letter of indulgence from the commissioner, who,
with a significant reference to the absolute power granted
to himself, promised them complete absolution and the good
opinion of their fellow-men.

We have evidence to show how Tetzel preached himself,
and what he wished these sermons on indulgences to be
like. Calling upon the people, he summoned all, and
especially the great sinners, such as murderers and robbers,
to turn to their God and receive the medicine which God,
in his mercy and wisdom, had provided for their benefit.
St. Stephen once had given up his body to be stoned, St.
Lawrence his to be roasted, St. Bartholomew his to a fear-
ful death. Would they not willingly sacrifice a little gift in
order to obtain everlasting life ? Of the souls in purgatory
it was said, ' They, your parents and relatives, are crying
out to you, " We are in the bitterest torments, you could
deliver us by giving a small alms, and yet you will not. We
have given you birth, nourished you, and left to you our
temporal goods ; and such is your cruelty that you, who
might so easily make us free, leave us here to lie in the
flames." '

To all who directly or indirectly, in public or in private,
should in any way depreciate, or murmur against, or obstruct
these indulgences, it was announced that, by Papal edict,
they lay already by so doing under the ban of excommuni-
cation, and could only be absolved by the Pope or by one
of his commissioners.

After Luther had once ventured to attack openly this
sale of indulgences, it was admitted even by their defenders
and the violent enemies of the Eeformer, that in those
days * greedy commissioners, monks and priests, had
preached unblushingly about indulgences, and had laid
more stress upon the money than upon confession, re»
pentance, and sorrow.' Christian people were shocked and

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 89

scandalised at the abuse. It was asked whether indeed
God so loved the money, that for the sake of a few pence
He would leave a soul in everlasting torments, or why the
Pope did not out of love empty the whole of purgatory,
since he was willing to free innumerable souls in return for
such a trifle as a contribution to the building of a church.
But not one of them found it then expedient to incur the
abuse and slander of a Tetzel by a word spoken openly
against the gross misconduct the fruits of which were so
important to the Pope and the Archbishop.

Tetzel now came to the borders of the Elector of Saxony's
dominion, and to the neighbourhood of Wittenberg. The
Elector would not allow him to enter his territory, on
account of so much money being taken away, and accord-
ingly he opened his trade at Jiiterbok. Among those who
confessed to Luther, there were some who appealed to
letters of indulgence which they had purchased from him
there.

In a sermon preached as early as the summer of 1516,
Luther had warned his congregation against trusting to
indulgences, and he did not conceal his aversion to the
system, whilst admitting his doubts and ignorance as to
some important questions on the subject. He knew that
these opinions and objections would grieve the heart of his
sovereign ; for Frederick, who with all his sincere piety,
still shared the exaggerated veneration of the middle ages
for relics, and had formed a rich collection of them in the
Church of the Castle and Convent at Wittenberg, which he
was always endeavouring to enrich, rejoiced at the Pope's
lavish offer of indulgences to all who at an annual exhibition
of these sacred treasures should pay their devotions at the
nineteen altars of this church. A few years before he had
caused a ' Book of Relics ' to be printed, which enumerated
upwards of five thousand different specimens, and showed
how they represented half a million days of indulgence.
Luther relates how he had incurred the Elector's displeasure

9o

THE BREACH WITH ROME.

by a sermon preached in his Castle Church against indul-
gences : he preached, however, again before the exhibition

Fw. 12.— The Castle Church. (From the Wittenberg Book of Relics,
1509 : the hill in the background is an addition by the artist.)

held in February 1517. The honour and interest, more-
over, of his university had to be considered, for that church

THE NINETY FIVE THESES. 91

was attached to it, the professors were also dignitaries of
the convent, and the university benefited by the revenues of
the foundation.

Luther was then, as he afterwards described himself, a
young doctor of divinity, ardent, and fresh from the forge.
He was burning to protest against the scandal. But as yet
he restrained himself and kept quiet. He wrote, indeed,
on the subject to some of the bishops. Some listened to
him graciously ; others laughed at him ; none wished to
take any steps in the matter.

He longed now to make known to theologians and eccle-
siastics generally his thoughts about indulgences, his own
principles, his own opinions and doubts, to excite public
discussion on the subject, and to awake and maintain the
fray. This he did by the ninety- five Latin theses or pro-
positions which he posted on the doors of the Castle Church
at Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints'
Day and of the anniversary of the consecration of the
Church.

These theses were intended as a challenge for disputa-
tion. Such public disputations were then very common at
the universities and among theologians, and they were
meant to serve as means not only of exercising learned
thought, but of elucidating the truth. Luther headed his
theses as follows :—

' Disputation to explain the virtue of indulgences. — In
charity and in the endeavour to bring the truth to light, a
disputation on the following propositions will be held at
Wittenberg, presided over by the Eeverend Father Martin
Luther . . . Those who are unable to attend personally
may discuss the question with us by letter. In the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.'

It was in accordance with the general custom of that
time that, on the occasion of a high festival, particular
acts and announcements, and likewise disputations at a

92 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

university, were arranged, and the doors of a cd^dul-
church were used for posting such notices. ' Uion

The contents of these theses show that their author e$
really had such a disputation in view. He was resolved to
defend with all his might certain fundamental truths to
which he firmly adhered. Some points he considered still
within the region of dispute ; it was his wish and object to
make these clear to himself by arguing about them with
others.

Kecognising the connection between the system of in-
dulgences and the view of penance entertained by the
Church, he starts with considering the nature of true
Christian repentance ; but he would have this understood
in the sense and spirit taught by Christ and the Scriptures,
as, indeed, Staupitz had first taught it to him. He begins
with the thesis ' Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when
He says Eepent, desires that the whole life of the believer
should be one of repentance.' He means, as the subsequent
theses express it, that true inward repentance, that sorrow
for sin and hatred of one's own sinful self, from which
must proceed good works and mortification of the sinful
flesh. The Pope could only remit his sin to the penitent
so far as to declare that God had forgiven it.

Thus then the theses expressly declare that God forgives
no man his sin without making him submit himself in
humility to the priest who represents Him, and that He
recognises the punishments enjoined by the Church in her
outward sacrament of penance. But Luther's leading
principles are consistently opposed to the customary an-
nouncements of indulgences by the Church. The Pope, he
holds, can only grant indulgences for what the Pope and
the law of the Church have imposed ; nay, the Pope him-
self means absolution from these obligations only, when he
promises absolution from all punishment. And it is only
the living against whom those punishments are directed
which the Church's discipline of penance enjoins : nothing,

THE NINETY-FIVE THESES. 93

according to her own laws, can be imposed upon those in
another world.

Further on, Luther declares, ' When true repentance is
awakened in a man, full absolution from punishment and
sin comes to him without any letters of indulgence.' , At
the same time he says that such a man would willingly
undergo self-imposed chastisement, nay, he would even
seek and love it.

Still, it is not the indulgences themselves, if understood
in the right sense, that he wishes to be attacked, but the
loose babble of those who sold them. Blessed, he says, be
he who protests against this, but cursed be he who speaks
against the truth of apostolic indulgences. He finds it
difficult, however, to praise these to the people, and at the
same time to teach them the true repentance of the heart.
He would have them even taught that a Christian would do
better by giving money to the poor than by spending it in
buying indulgences, and that he who allows a poor man near
him to starve draws down on himself, not indulgences, but
the wrath of God. In sharp and scornful language he
denounces the iniquitous trader in indulgences, and gives
the Pope credit for the same abhorrence for the traffic that
he felt himself. Christians must be told, he says, that if
the Pope only knew of it, he would rather see St. Peter's
Church in ashes, than have it built with the flesh and bones
of his sheep.

Agreeably with what the preceding theses had said
about the true penitent's earnestness and willingness to
suffer, and the temptation offered to a mere carnal sense of
security, Luther concludes as follows : ' Away therefore
with all those prophets who say to Christ's people " Peace,
peace ! " when there is no peace, but welcome to all those
who bid them seek the Cross of Christ, not the Cross which
bears the Papal arms. Christians must be admonished
to follow Christ their Master through torture, death, and
hell, and thus through much tribulation, rather than by a

94 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

carnal feeling of false security, hope to enter the kingdom
of heaven.

The Catholics objected to this doctrine of salvation
advanced by Luther, that by trusting to God's free mercy
and by undervaluing good works, it led to moral indolence.
But on the contrary, it was to the very unbending moral
earnestness of a Christian conscience, which, indignant at
the temptations offered to moral frivolity, to a deceitful
feeling of ease in respect to sin and guilt, and to a con-
tempt of the fruits of true morality, rebelled against the
false value attached to this indulgence money, that these
Theses, the germ, so to speak, of the Reformation, owed
their origin and prosecution. With the same earnestness
he now for the first time publicly attacked the ecclesiastical
power of the Papacy, in so far namely as, in his conviction,
it invaded the territory reserved to Himself by the Heavenly
Lord and Judge. This was what the Pope and his theolo-
gians and ecclesiastics could least of all endure.

On the same day that these theses were published,
Luther sent a copy of them with a letter to the Archbishop
Albert, his ' revered and gracious Lord and Shepherd in
Christ.' After a humble introduction, he begged him
most earnestly to prevent the scandalising and iniquitous
harangues with which his agents hawked about their in-
dulgences, and reminded him that he would have to give an
account of the souls entrusted to his episcopal care.

The next day he addressed himself to the people from
the pulpit, in a sermon he had to preach on the festival of
All Saints. After exhorting them to seek their salvation in
God and Christ alone, and to let the consecration by the
Church become a real consecration of the heart, he went
on to tell them plainly, with regard to indulgences, that he
could only absolve from duties imposed by the Church, and
that they dare not rely on him for more, nor delay on his
account the duties of true repentance.

95

CHAPTEE II.

THE CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES.

Anyone who has heard that the great movement of the
Eeformation in Germany, and with it the founding of the
Evangelical Church, originated in the ninety-five theses of
Luther, and who then reads these theses through, might
perhaps be surprised at the importance of their results.
They referred, in the first place, to only one particular point
of Christian doctrine, not at all to the general fundamental
question as to how sinners could obtain forgiveness and be
saved, but merely to the remission of punishments connected
with penance. They contained no positive declaration
against the most essential elements of the Catholic theory
of penance, or against the necessity of oral confession, or
of priestly absolution, and such subjects ; they presupposed,
in fact, the existence of a purgatory. Much of what they
attacked, not one of the learned theologians of the middle
ages or of those times had ever ventured to assert ; as, for
instance, the notion that indulgences made the remission of
sins to the individual complete on the part of God. More-
over, the ruling principles of the theology of the clay, which
defended the system of indulgences, though resting mainly on
the authority of the great Scholastic teacher Thomas Aquinas,
were not adopted by other Scholastics, and had never been
erected into a dogma by any decree of the Church. Theo-
logians before Luther, and with far more acuteness and
penetration than he showed in his theses, had already
assailed the whole system of indulgences. And, in regard
to any idea on Luther's part of the effects of his theses

96 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

extending widely in Germany, it may be noticed that not
only were they composed in Latin, but that they dealt largely
with Scholastic expressions and ideas, which a layman would
find it difficult to understand.

Nevertheless the theses created a sensation which far
surpassed Luther's expectations. In fourteen days, as he tells
us, they ran through the whole of Germany, and were im-
mediately translated and circulated in German. They
found, indeed, the soil already prepared for them, through
the indignation long since and generally aroused by the
shameless doings they attacked ; though till then nobody, as
Luther expresses it, had liked to bell the cat, nobody had
dared to expose himself to the blasphemous clamour of the
indulgence-mongers and the monks who were in league
with them, still less to the threatened charge of heresy.

On the other hand, the very impunity with which this
traffic in indulgences had been maintained throughout
German Christendom, had served to increase from day to day
the audacity of its promoters. Ranged on the side of these
doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, the chief mainstay of this
trade, stood the whole powerful order of the Dominicans.
And to this order Tetzel himself, the sub-commissioner of
indulgences, belonged. Already other doctrines of the Pope's
authority, of his power over the salvation of the human
soul, and the infallibility of his decisions, had been asserted
with ever-increasing boldness. The mediaeval writings of
Thomas Aquinas had conspicuously tended to this result.
And a climax had just been reached at a so-called General
Council, which met at Eome shortly after Luther's visit
there, and continued its sittings for several years.

Tetzel, who hitherto had only made himself notorious
as a preacher, or rather as a bawling mountebank, now
answered Luther with two series of theses of his own,
drawn up in learned scholastic form. One Conrad Wimpina,
a theologian of the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder,
whom the Archbishop Albert had recommended, assisted

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 97

Tetzel in this work. The university of Frankfort immedi-
ately made Tetzel doctor of theology, and thus espoused
his theses. Three hundred Dominican monks assembled
round bim while he conducted an academical disputation
upon them. The doctrines he now advanced were the
doctrines of Thomas Aquinas. But at the same time he
took care to make the question of the Pope's position and
power the cardinal point at issue : he and his patrons knew
well enough, that for Luther, who in his theses had touched
upon this question so significantly though so briefly, this
was the most fatal blow that he could deal. ' Christians
must be taught,' he declared, 'that in all that relates to
faith and salvation, the judgment of the Pope is absolutely
infallible, and that all observances connected with matters
of faith on which the Papal see has expressed itself, are
equivalent to Christian truths, even if they are not to be
found in Scripture.' With distinct reference to his opponent,
but without actually mentioning him by name, he insists
that whoever defends heretical error must be held to be ex-
communicated, and if he fails within a given time to make
satisfaction, incurs by right and law the most frightful
penalties. Furthermore, he argued — and this has always
been held up against Luther and Protestantism — that if the
authority of the Church and Pope should not be recognised,
every man would believe only what was pleasing to himself
and what he found in the Bible, and thus the souls of all
Christendom would be imperilled.

Luther's theses now found another assailant, and one
stronger even than Tetzel, in the person of a Dominican
and Thomist, one Sylvester Mazolini of Prierio (Prierias),
master of the sacred palace at Eome, and a confidant of the
Pope. He too, like Tetzel, based his chief contention on the
question of Papal authority, and was the first to carry that
contention to an extreme. The Pope, he said, is the Church
of Borne ; the Bomish Church is the Universal Christian
Church ; whoever disputes the right of the Bomish Church

H

98 THE BREACH WITH ROME. .

to act entirely as she may, is a heretic. In this way he
treated as contemptuously as he could the obscure German,
whose theses, that ' bite like a cur,' as he expressed it, he
only wished to dismiss with all despatch.

Another Dominican, James van Hoogstraten, prior at
Cologne, who had already figured as the prime zealot in the
affair about Eeuchlin, which he was still prosecuting, now
demanded, in his preface to a pamphlet on that subject, that
Luther should be sent to the stake as a dangerous heretic.

But a far more important, and to Luther an utterly un-
expected opponent, appeared in the person of John Eck, pro-
fessor at the university of Ingolstadt, and canon at Eichstadt.
He was a man of very extensive learning in the earlier and
later Scholastic theology of the Church ; he was a sharp-
witted and ready controversialist, and he knew how to use his
weapons in disputations. He was fully conscious of these
gifts, and made a bold push to advance himself by their
means, whilst troubling himself very little in reality about
the high and sacred issues involved in the dispute. He
sought to keep on friendly and useful relations with other
circles than those of Scholastic theology, such as with
learned Humanists, and a short time before, with Luther
himself and his colleague Carlstadt, to whom he had been
introduced through a jurist of Nuremberg named Scheuerl.
Luther, after the publication of his theses, had written a
friendly letter to Eck. What then was his surprise to find
himself attacked by Eck in a critical reply entitled
'Obelisks.' The tone of his remarks was as wounding,
coarse, and vindictive as their substance was superficial.
They aimed a well-meditated blow, by stigmatising Luther's
propositions as Bohemian poison, mere Hussite heresy.
Eck, when reproached for such a breach of friendship,
declared that he had written the book for his bishop of
Eichstadt, and not with any view of publication.

Luther himself, loud as was his call to battle in his theses,
had still no intention of engaging in a general contest about

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 99

the leading principles of the Church. He had not yet
realised the whole extent and bearings of the question
about indulgences. Referring afterwards to the rapid circu-
lation of his theses through Germany, and to the fame
which his onslaught had earned him, he says, ' I did not
relish the fame, for I myself was not aware of what there
was in the indulgences, and the song was pitched too high
for my voice.' People far and wide were proud of the man
who spoke out so boldly in his theses, while the multitude
of doctors and bishops kept silence ; but he still stood
alone before the public, confronting the storm which he
had aroused against himself. He did not conceal the fact,
that now and then he felt strange and anxious about his
position. But he had learned to take his stand singly
and firmly on the word of Scripture, and on the truth
which God therein revealed to him and brought home to
his conviction. He was only the more strengthened in that
conviction by the replies of his opponents ; for he must well
have been amazed at their utter want of Scriptural reference
to disprove his conclusions, and at the blind subservience
with which they merely repeated the statements of their
Scholastic authorities. The arrogant reply of Prierias, his
opponent of highest rank, seemed to him particularly poor.
In confident words Luther assures his friends of his con-
viction that what he taught was the purest theology, that
what he upheld and his opponents attacked, was a revela-
tion direct from God. He knew too, that, in the words of
St. Paul, he had to preach what to the holiest of the Jews was
a stumbling-block, and to the wisest of the Greeks foolish-
ness. He was none the less ready to do so, that Jesus
Christ, his Lord, might say of him, as He said once of that
Apostle, ' I will show him how great things he must suffer
for my name's sake.' Luther's . enemies in the Romish
Church have thought to see in these words an instance of
boundless self-assertion on the part of an individual subject.
From henceforth Luther, while pursuing with unabated

h 2

ioo THE BREACH WITH ROME.

zeal his active duties at the university and in the pulpit at
"Wittenberg, and taking up his pen again and again to write
short immphlets of a simple and edifying kind, occupied
himself untiringly with controversial writings, with the ob-
ject partly of defending himself against attacks, partly of
establishing on a firm basis the principles he had set forth,
and of further investigating and making plain the way of
true Christian knowledge. He first addressed himself to
German Christendom, in German, in his ' Sermon on
Indulgences and Grace.' His inward excitement is shown
by the vehemence and ruggedness of expression which now
and henceforth marked his polemical writings. It recalls
to mind the tone then commonly met with not only among
ordinary monks, but even in the controversies of theologians
and learned men, and in which Luther's own opponents,
especially that high Eoman theologian, had set him the
example. In Luther we see now, throughout his whole
method of polemics, as we shall see still more later on, a
mighty, Vulcanic, natural power breaking forth, but always
regulated by the humblest devotion to the lofty mission that
his conscience has imposed upon him. Even in his most
vehement outbursts we never fail to catch the tender
expressions of a Christian warmth and fervour of the
heart, and a loftiness of language corresponding to the
sacredness of the subject.

In the midst of these labours and controversies, Luther
had to undertake a journey in the spring of 1518 (about
the middle of April) to a chapter general of his Order at
Heidelberg, where, according to the rules, a new Vicar was
chosen after a triennial term of office. His friends feared
the snares that his enemies might have prepared for him
on the road. He himself did not hesitate for a moment to
obey the call of duty.

The Elector Frederick, who owed him at least a debt of
gratitude for having helped to keep his territory free from
the rapacious Tetzel, but who, both now and afterwards,

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 101

conscientiously held aloof from the contest, gave proof on
this occasion of his undiminished kindness and regard for
him, in a letter he addressed to Staupitz. He writes as
follows : — ' As you have required Martin Luder to attend
a Chapter at Heidelberg, it is his wish, although we grudge
giving him permission to leave our university, to go there
and render due obedience. And as we are indebted to
your suggestion for this excellent doctor of theology, in
whom we are so well pleased, .... it is our desire that
you will further his safe return here, and not allow him to
be delayed.' He also gave Luther cordial letters of intro-
duction to Bishop Laurence of Wurzburg, through whose
town his road passed, and to the Count Palatine Wolfgang,
at Heidelberg. From both of these, though many had
already declaimed against him as a heretic, he met with a
most friendly and obliging reception.

His relations, moreover, at Heidelberg with his fellow-
members of the Order, and, above all, with Staupitz,
remained unclo.ided. Staupitz was re-elected here as
Vicar of the Order ; the office of provincial Vicar passed from
Luther to John Lange, of Erfurt, his intimate friend and
fellow- thinker. The question about indulgences had not
entered at all into the business of the chapter. But at a dis-
putation held in the convent, according to custom, Luther
presided, and wrote for it some propositions embodying the
fundamental points of his doctrines concerning the sinful-
ness and powerlessness of man, and righteousness, through
God's grace, in Christ, and against the philosophy and
theology of Aristotelian Scholasticism. He attracted the
keen interest of several young inmates of the convent who
afterwards became his coadjutors, such as John Brenz,
Erhardt Schnepf, and Martin Butzer. They marvelled at
his power of drawing out the meaning from the Scriptures,
and of speaking not only with clearness and decision, but
also with refinement and grace. Thus his journey served
to promote at once his reputation and his influence.

io- THE BREACH WITH ROME.

On his return to Wittenberg on May 15, after an
absence of five weeks, he hastened to complete a detailed
explanation in Latin of the contents of his theses, under
the title of ' Solutions,' the greatest and most important
work that he published at this period of the contest.

The most valuable fruit of the controversy so far as
regards Luther and his later work, and evidence of which
is given in these ' Solutions,' was the advance he had
made, and had been compelled to make, in the course of
his own self-reasoning and researches. New questions
presented themselves : the inward connection of the truth
became gradually manifest : new results forced themselves
upon him : his anxiety to solve his difficulties still con-
tinued.

Luther in his theses, when speaking of the call of
Jesus to repentance, had never indeed admitted that the
sacrament of penance enjoined by the Church, with
auricular confession and the penances and satisfactions
imposed by the priest, was based on God's command or the
authority of the Bible. He now openly acknowledged and
declared that these ecclesiastical acts were not enjoined by
Christ at all, but solely by the Pope and the Church.

The contest about the indulgences granted by the Pope
in respect of these acts, opened up now the doctrine of the
so-called treasures of the Church, on which the Pope drew for
his bounty. Luther, while conceding to the Pope the right
of dispensing indulgences in the sense understood by himself,
guarded himself against admitting that the merits of Christ
constituted that treasure, and so should be disposed of by
the Pope in this manner : the dispensation of indulgences
rested simply on the Papal power of the keys. It was
now objected to him that herein he was going counter to
an express and duly recorded declaration of a pope, Cle-
ment VI., namely, that the merits of Christ were undoubtedly
to be dispensed in indulgences. Luther, who in his theses
against the abuse of indulgences had abstained as yet

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 103

from propounding anything which might be inconsistent
with the ascertained meaning of the Pope, now insisted
without hesitation on this contradiction. That Papal pro-
nouncement, he declared, did not bear the character of a
dogmatic decree, and a distinction was to be drawn between
a decree of the Pope and its acceptance by the Church
through a Council.

How then, Luther proceeded to inquire, should the
Christian obtain forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God,
righteousness before God, peace and holiness in God?
And in answering this question he reverted to the key-note
of his doctrine of salvation, which he had begun to preach
before the contest about indulgences commenced. He had
already declared that salvation came through faith; in
other words, through heartfelt trust in God's mercy, as
announced by the Bible, and in the Saviour Christ. How
was that consistent with the acts of ecclesiastical penance,
such as absolution in particular, which must be obtained
from the priest ? Luther now declared that God would
assuredly allow his offer of forgiveness to be conveyed to
those who longed for it, by His commissioned servant of
the Church, the priest, but that the assurance of such for-
giveness must lean simply on the promise of God, by
virtue and on behalf of Whom the priest performed his
office. And at the same time he declared that this promise
could be conveyed to a troubled Christian by any brother-
Christian, and that full forgiveness would be granted to
him if he had faith. No enumeration of particular sins
was necessary for that end; it was enough if the repentant
and faithful yearning for the word of mercy was made
known to the priest or brother from whom the message of
comfort was sought. Hence it followed, on the one hand,
that priestly absolution and the sacrament availed nothing
to the receiver unless he turned with inward faith to his
God and Saviour, received with faith the word spoken to
him, and through that word let himself be raised to greater

104 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

faith. It followed also, on the other hand, that a penitent
and faithful Christian, holding fast to that word, to whom
the priest should arbitrarily refuse the absolution he
looked for, could, in spite of such refusal, participate in
God's forgiveness to the full. Herewith was broken at
once the most powerful bond by which the dominant
Church enslaved the souls to the organs of her hierarchy o
Luther has humbled man to the lowest before God, through
Whose grace alone the sinner, in meek and believing
trustfulness, can be saved. But in God and through this
grace he teaches him to be free and certain of salvation.
Christ, he says, has not willed that man's salvation should
lie in the hand or at the pleasure of a man.

As for the outward acts and punishments which the
Church and the Pope imposed, he did not seek to abolish
them. In this external province at least he recognised in
the Pope a power originating direct from God. Here, in
his opinion, the Christian was bound to put up with even
an abuse of power and the infliction of unjust punish-
ment.

The whole contest turned ultimately on the question as
to who should determine disputes about the truth, and where
to seek the highest standard and the purest source of Chris-
tian verity. Gradually at first, and manifestly with many
inward struggles on the part of Luther, his views and prin-
ciples gained clearness and consistency. Even within the
Catholic Church the doctrine as to the highest authority to
be recognised in questions of belief and conduct was by no
means so firmly established as is frequently represented by
both Protestants and Koman Catholics. The doctrine of the
infallibility of the Pope, and of the absolute authority attach-
ing thereby to his decisions, however confidently asserted by
the admirers of Aquinas and accepted by the Popes, was not
erected into a dogma of the Eoman Catholic Church until
1870. The other theory, that even the Pope can err, and
that the supreme decision rests with a General Council, had

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 105

been maintained by theologians whom, at the same time, no
Pope had ever ventured to treat as heretics. It was on the
ground of this latter theory that the University of Paris,
then the first university in Europe, had just appealed from
the Pope to a General Council. In Germany opinions were
on the whole divided between this and the theory of Papal
absolutism. Again, the view that neither the decisions of a
Council nor of a Pope were ipso facto infallible, but that an
appeal therefrom lay to a council possibly better informed,
had already been advanced with impunity by writers of the
fifteenth century. The only point as to which no doubt
was expressed, was that the decisions of previous General
Councils, acknowledged also by the Pope, contained abso-
lutely pure Divine truth, and that the Christian Universal
Church could never fall into error; but even then, with
reference to this Church, the question still remained as to
who or what was her true and final representative.

Luther now followed what he found to be the teaching
of the Bible, so far as that teaching presented itself to his
own independent and conscientious research, and as, traced
home in the New Testament and especially in the Epistles
of St. Paul, it shaped itself to his perception. But for all this,
he would not yet abandon his agreement with the Church
of which he was a member. The very man whom Eck
had branded as full of ' Bohemian poison,' complained of
the Bohemian Brethren or Moravians for exalting themselves
in their ignorance above the rest of Christendom. A Thomist
indeed, who to him was only a Scholastic among others, he
fearlessly opposed ; but still we find no expression of a
thought that the Church, assembled at a General Council, had
ever erred, nor even that any future Council could pronounce
an erroneous decision upon the present points in dispute.
Nay, he awaits the decision of such a Council against the
charges of heresy already brought against him, though
without ever admitting his readiness, if such a Council
should assemble, to submit beforehand and unconditionally

106 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

to its decision, whatever it might be. Above and before any
such decision he held firm to the authority of his own
conviction : his conscience, he said, would not allow him to
yield from that resolve ; he was not standing alone in this
contest, but with him stood the truth, together with all
those who shared his doubts as to the virtue of indulgences.
Still, while rejecting the doctrine of the infallibility of
the Popes, it was a hard matter for Luther to reproach them
also with actual error in their decisions. We have seen
how necessity forced him to do so in the case of Clement VI.
Towards the existing Head of the Church he desired to
remain, as far as possible, in concord and subjection. It
was not for mere appearance' sake, that in his ninety-five
theses he represented his own view of indulgences as being
also that of the Pope. He hoped, at all events, and wished
with all his heart that it was so ; and later on, towards the
close of his life, he tells us how confidently he had cherished
the expectation that the Pope would be his patron in the
war against the shameless vendors of indulgences. Even
after those hopes had failed, he spoke of Leo X. with respect
as a man of good disposition and an educated theologian,
whose only misfortune was that he lived in an atmosphere
of corruption and in a vicious age. He was none the less
assured of his Divine credentials as the supreme earthly
Shepherd of Christendom, and the depositary of all canonical
power. The duty of humility and obedience, impressed on
him to excess as a monk, must, no less than the fear of the
possible dangers and troubles in store for himself and his
Christian brethren, have made Luther shrink from the
thought of having actually to testify and fight against him.
He ventured to dedicate his ' Solutions ' to the Pope him-
self. The letter of May 30, 1518, in which he did this,
shows the peculiar, anomalous, and untenable position in
which he now found himself placed. He is horrified, he
says, at the charges of heresy and schism brought against
himself. He who would much prefer to live in peace, had no

CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES. 107

wish to set up any dogmas in his theses, provoked as they
were by a public scandal, but simply in Christian zeal, or,
as others might have it, in youthful ardour, to invite men
to a disputation, and his present desire was to publish his
explanation of them under the patronage and protection of
the Pope himself. But at the same time . he declares that
his conscience was innocent and untroubled, and he adds
with emphatic brevity, ' Eetract I cannot.' He concludes by
humbly casting himself at the Pope's feet with the words,
' Give me life or death, accept or reject me as you please.'
He will recognise the Papal voice as that of the Lord Jesus
Himself. He will, if worthy of death, not flinch from it.
But that declaration of his, which he could not retract, must
stand.

io8 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

CHAPTER III.

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. APPEAL
TO A COUNCIL.

The task that Luther had now undertaken lay heavy upon
his soul. He was sincerely anxious, whilst fighting for the
truth, to remain at peace with his Church, and to serve her
by the struggle. Pope Leo, on the contrary, as was consist-
ent with his whole character, treated the matter at first very
lightly, and when it threatened to become dangerous,
thought only how, by means of his Papal power, to make
the restless German monk harmless.

Two expressions of his in these early days of the contest
are recorded. ' Brother Martin,' he said, ' is a man of a
very fine genius, and this outbreak the mere squabble of
envious monks ; ' and again, ' It is a drunken German who
has written the theses ; he will think differently about them
when sober.' Three months after the theses had appeared,
he ordered the Vicar- General of the Augustinians to ' quiet
down the man,' hoping still to extinguish easily the flame.
The next step was to institute a tribunal for heretics at
Rome, for Luther's trial : what its judgment would be was
patent from the fact that the single theologian of learning
among the judges was Sylvester Prierias. Before this
tribunal Luther was cited on August 7 ; within sixty days
he was to appear there at Borne. Friend and foe could
well feel certain that they would look in vain for his return.

Papal influence, meanwhile, had been brought to bear on
the Elector Frederick, to induce him not to take the part
of Luther, and the chief agent chosen for working on the

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN 109

Elector and the Emperor Maximilian was the Papal legate,
Cardinal Thomas Yio of Gaeta, called Caietan, who had
made his appearance in Germany. The University of
Wittenberg, on the other hand, interposed on behalf of
their member, whose theology was popular there, and whose
biblical lectures attracted crowds of enthusiastic hearers.
He had just been joined at Wittenberg by his fellow-
professor Philip Melancthon, then only twenty-one years
old, but already in the first rank of Greek scholars, and the
bond of friendship was now formed which lasted through
their lives. The university claimed that Luther should at
least be tried in Germany.

Luther expressed the same wish through Spalatin to
his sovereign. He now also answered publicly the attack
of Prierias upon his theses, and declared not only that a
Council alone could represent the Church, but that esren
a decree of Council might err, and that an Act of the
Church was no final evidence of the truth of a doctrine.
Being threatened with excommunication, he preached a
sermon on the subject, and showed how a Christian, even
if under the ban of the Church, or excluded from outward
communion with her, could still remain in true inward
communion with Christ and His believers, and might then
see in his excommunication the noblest merit of his own.

The Pope, meanwhile, had passed from his previous
state of haughty complacency to one of violent haste.
Already, on August 23, thus long before the sixty days had
expired, he demanded the Elector to deliver up this ' child
of the devil,' who boasted of his protection, to the legate,
to bring away with him. This is clearly shown by two
private briefs from the Pope, of August 23 and 25, the one
addressed to the legate, the other to the head of all the
Augustinian convents in Saxony, as distinguished from the
Vicar of those congregations, Staupitz, who already was
looked on with suspicion at Eome. These briefs instructed
both men to hasten the arrest of the heretic ; his adherents

no THE BREACH WITH ROME.

were to be secured with him, and every place where he was
tolerated laid under the interdict. So unheard of seemed
this conduct of the Pope, that Protestant historians would
not believe in the genuineness of the briefs ; but we shall
soon see how Caietan himself refers to the one in his
possession.

Other and general relations, interests, and movements
of the ecclesiastical and political life of the German nation
now began to exercise an influence, direct or indirect, upon
the history of Luther and the development of the struggles
of the Pieformation, and even caused the Pope himself to
moderate his conduct.

Whilst questions of the deepest kind about the means
of salvation, and the grounds and rules of Christian truth,
had been opened up for the first time by Luther during the
contest about indulgences, the abuses, encroachments, and
acts of tyranny committed by the Pope on the temporal
domain of the Church, and closely affecting the political
and social life of the people, had long been the subject of
bitter complaints and vigorous remonstrances throughout
Germany. These complaints and remonstrances had been
raised by princes and states of the Empire, who would not
be silenced by any theories or dogmas about the Divine
authority and infallibility of the Po'pe, nor crushed by any
mere sentence of excommunication. And in raising them
they had made no question of the Divine right of the
Papacy. Was it not natural that, in the indignation
excited by their wrongs, they should turn to the man who
had laid the axe to the root of the tree which bore such
fruit, and at least consider the possibility of profiting by
his work ? Luther, on his part, showed at first a singularly
small acquaintance with the circumstances of their com-
plaints, and seemed hardly aware of the loud protests
raised so long on this subject at the Diets. But with the
question of indulgences the field of his experience broadened
in this respect. The care he evinced in this matter for the

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. in

care of souls and true Christian morality made him the
ally of all those who were alarmed at the vast export of
money to Kome, about which he had already said in his
theses that the Christian sheep were being regularly fleeced.
In another respect, also, the ecclesiastical policy of the
Papal see was closely interwoven with the political condition
and history of Germany. If in theory the Pope claimed to
control and confirm the decrees even of the civil power, in
practice he at least attempted to assert and maintain an
omnipresent influence. And with regard to Germany it
was all-important to him that the Empire should not
become so powerful as to endanger his authority in general
and his territorial sovereignty in Italy. However loftily
the Popes in their briefs proclaimed their immutable rights,
derived from God, and their plenary power, and took care
to let theologians and jurists advance such pretensions,
they understood clearly enough in their practical conduct
to adjust those relations to the rules of political or diplo-
matic necessity.

In the summer of 1518 a Diet was held at Augsburg,
at which the Papal legate attended. The Pope was anxious
to obtain its consent to the imposition of a heavy tax
throughout the Empire, to be applied ostensibly for the war
against the Turks, but alleged to be wanted in reality for
entirely other objects. The Emperor Maximilian, now old
and hastening to his end, was endeavouring to secure the
succession of his grandson Charles, and Caietan's chief
task was to exert his influence with Maximilian and the
Elector Frederick to bring Luther into their disfavour.
The Archbishop Albert, who had been hit so hard by
Luther's attack on the traffic in indulgences, was solemnly
proclaimed Cardinal by order of the Pope.

Of Maximilian it might fairly have been expected that,
after his many experiences and contests with the Popes, he
would at least protect Luther from the worst, however un-
likely it might be that he should entertain the idea of effect-

ii2 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

ing, by his help, a great reform in the National Church.
He did indeed express his wish to Pfeffinger, a counsellor of
the Elector, that his prince should take care of the monk,
as his services might some day be wanted. But he supported
the Pope in the matter of the tax, and hoped to gain him
for his own political ends. He opposed Luther also in his
attack on indulgences, on the ground that it endangered the
Church, and that he was resolved to uphold the action taken
by the Pope.

This demand for a tax, however, was received with the
utmost disfavour both by the Diet and the Empire ; and a
long-cherished bitterness of feeling now found expression.
An anonymous pamphlet was circulated, from the pen of
one Fischer, a prebendary of Wurzburg, which bluntly de-
clared that the avaricious lords of Piome only wished to
cheat the ' drunken Germans,' and that the real Turks were
to be looked for in Italy. This pamphlet reached Wittenberg
and fell into the hands of Luther, whom now for the first
time we hear denouncing ' Pioman cunning,' though he only
charged the Pope himself with allowing his grasping
Florentine relations to deceive him. The Diet seized the
opportunity offered by this demand for a tax, to bring up
a whole list of old grievances ; the large sums drawn from
German benefices by the Pope under the name of annates,
or extorted under other pretexts ; the illegal usurpation of
ecclesiastical patronage in Germany, the constant infringe-
ment of concordats, and so on. The demand itself was
refused, and in addition to this, an address was presented to
the Diet from the bishop and clergy of Liege, inveighing
against the lying, thieving, avaricious conduct of the
Piomish minions, in such sharp and violent tones that
Luther, on reading it afterwards when printed, thought it
only a hoax, and not really an episcopal remonstrance.

This was reason enough why Caietan, to avoid in-
creasing the excitement, should not attempt to lay hands
on the Wittenberg opponent of indulgences. The Elector

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 113

Frederick, from whose hands Caietan would have to demand
Luther, was one of the most powerful and personally
respected princes of the Empire, and his influence was es-
pecially important in view of the election of a new Emperor.
This prince went now in person to Caietan on Luther's be-
half, and Caietan promised him, at the very time that the
brief was on its way to him from Eome, that he would hear
Luther at Augsburg, treat him with fatherly kindness, and
let him depart in safety.

Luther accordingly was sent to Augsburg. It was an
anxious time for himself and his friends when he had to
leave for that distant place, where the Elector, with all his
care, could not employ any physical means for his protection,
and to stand accused as a heretic before that Papal legate
who, from his own theological principles, was bound to
condemn him, Caietan being a zealous Thomist like Prierias,
and already notorious as a champion of indulgences and
Papal absolutism. ' My thoughts on the way,' said Luther
afterwards, ' were now I must die ; and I often lamented
the disgrace I should be to my dear parents.'

He went thither in humble garb and manner. He made
his way on foot till within a short distance of Augsburg,
when illness and weakness overcame him, and he was
forced to proceed by carriage. Another younger monk of
Wittenberg accompanied him, his pupil Leonard Baier.
At Nuremberg he was joined by his friend Link, who held
an appointment there as preacher. From him he borrowed
a monk's frock, his own being too bad for Augsburg. He
arrived here on October 7.

The surroundings he now entered, and the proceedings
impending over him, were wholly novel and unaccustomed.
But he met with men who received him with kindness and
consideration ; several of them were gentlemen of Augsburg
favourable to him, especially the respected patrician, Dr.
Conrad Peutinger, and two counsellors of the Elector.
They advised him to behave with prudence, and to observe

ii4 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

carefully all the necessary forms, to which as yet he was
a stranger.

Luther at once announced his arrival to Caietan, who
was anxious to receive him without delay. His friends,
however, kept him back until they had obtained a written
safe-conduct from the Emperor, who was then hunting in
the environs. In the meantime, a distinguished friend
of Caietan, one Urbanus of Serralonga, tried to persuade
him, in a flippant, and, as Luther thought, a downright
Italian manner, to come forward and simply pronounce
six letters, — Revoco — I retract. Urbanus asked him with a
smile if he thought his sovereign would risk his country for
his sake. ' God forbid ! ' answered Luther. ' Where then
do you mean to take refuge?' he went on to ask him.
1 Under Heaven,' was Luther's reply.

To Melancthon Luther wrote as follows : ' There is no
news here, except that the town is full of talk about me,
and everybody wants to see the man who, like a second
Herostratus, has kindled such a flame. Eemain a man as
you are, and instruct the youth aright. I go to be sacrificed
for them and for you, if God so will. For I will rather die,
and, what is the hardest fate, lose for ever the sweet inter-
course with you, than revoke anything that it was right for
me to say.'

On October 11 Luther received the letter of safe-
conduct, and the next day he appeared before Caietan.
Humbly, as he had been advised, he prostrated himself
before the representative of the Pope, who received him
graciously and bade him rise.

The Cardinal addressed him civilly, and with a courtesy
Luther was not accustomed to meet with from his opponents ;
but he immediately demanded him, in the name and by
command of the Pope, to retract his errors, and promise in
future to abstain from them and from everything that might
disturb the peace of the Church. He pointed out, in par-
ticular, two errors in his theses ; namely, that the Church's

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 115

treasure of indulgences did not consist of the merits of Christ,
and that faith on the part of the recipient was necessary
for the efficacy of the sacrament. With respect to the
second point, the religious principles upon which Luther
based his doctrine were altogether strange and unintelligible
to the Scholastic standpoint of Caietan ; mere tittering and
laughter followed Luther's observations, and he was required
to retract this thesis unconditionally. The first point
settled the question of Papal authority. On this, the
Cardinal-legate took his chief stand on the express declara-
tion of Pope Clement : he could not believe that Luther
would venture to resist a Papal bull, and thought he had
probably not read it. He read him a vigorous lecture of
his own on the paramount authority of the Pope over
Council, Church, and Scripture. As to any argument,
however, about the theses to be retracted, Caietan refused
from the first to engage in it, and undoubtedly he went
further in that direction than he originally desired or
intended. His sole wish was, as he said, to give fatherly
correction, and with fatherly friendliness to arrange the
matter. But in reality, says Luther, it was a blunt, naked,
unyielding display of power. Luther could only beg from
him further time for consideration.

Luther's friends at Augsburg, and Staupitz, who had
just arrived there, now attempted to divert the course of
these proceedings, to collect other decisions of importance
bearing on the subject, and to give him the opportunity of
a public vindication. Accompanied therefore by several
jurists friendly to his cause, and by a notary and Staupitz,
he laid before the legate next day a short and formal state-
ment of defence. He could not retract unless convicted
of error, and to all that he had said he must hold as
being Catholic truth. Nevertheless he was only human,
and therefore fallible, and he was willing to submit to a
legitimate decision of the Church. He offered, at the same
time, publicly to justify his theses, and he was ready to

1 2

n6 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

hear the judgment of the learned doctors of Basle, Freiburg,
Louvain, and even Paris upon them. Caietan with a smile
dismissed Luther and his proposals, but consented to re-
ceive a more detailed reply in writing to the principal points
discussed on the previous day.

On the morrow, October 14, Luther brought his reply
to the legate. But in this document also he insisted clearly
and resolutely from the commencement on those very prin-
ciples which his opponents regarded as destructive of all
ecclesiastical authority and of the foundations of Christian
belief. He spoke with crucial emphasis of the trouble he
had taken to interpret the words of Pope Clement in a
Scriptural sense. The Papal decrees might err, and be at
variance with Holy Writ. Even the Apostle Peter himself
had once to be reproved (Galat. ii. 11 sqq.) for ' walking not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel ; ' surely
then his successor was not infallible. Every faithful
believer in Christ was superior to the Pope, if he could
show better proofs and grounds of his belief. Still he
entreated Caietan to intercede with Leo X., that the latter
might not harshly thrust out into darkness his soul, which
was seeking for the light. But he repeated that he could do
nothing against his conscience : one must obey God rather
than man, and he had the fullest confidence that he had
Scripture on his side. Caietan, to whom he delivered this
reply in person, once more tried to persuade him. They
fell into a lively and vehement argument ; but Caietan cut
it short with the exclamation ' Revoke.' In the event of
Luther not revoking or submitting to judgment at Rome,
he threatened him and all his friends with excommunication,
and whatever place he might go to with an interdict ; he
had a mandate from the Pope to that effect already in his
hands. He then dismissed him with the words, ' Revoke,
or do not come again into my presence.'

Nevertheless he spoke in quite a friendly manner after
this to Staupitz, urging him to try his best to convert

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 117

Luther, whom he wished well. Luther, however, wrote the
same day to his friend Spalatin, who was with the Elector,
and to his friends at Wittenberg, telling them that he had
refused to yield. The legate, he said, had behaved with all
friendliness of manner to Staupitz in his affair, but neither
Staupitz nor himself trusted the Italian when out of sight.
If Caietan should use force against him, he would publish
the written reply he gave him. Caietan might call himself
a Thomist, but he was a muddle-headed, ignorant theologian
and Christian, and as clumsy in giving judgment in the mat-
ter as a donkey with a harp. Luther added further that
an appeal would be drawn up for him in the form best
fitted to the occasion. He further hinted to his Wittenberg
friends at the possibility of his having to go elsewhere
in exile; indeed, his friends already thought of taking him
to Paris, where the university still rejected the doctrine
of Papal absolutism. He concluded this letter by saying
that he refused to become a heretic by denying that which
had made him a Christian ; sooner than do that, he would
be burned, exiled, or cursed.

The appeal of which Luther here spoke, was ' from the
Pope ill-informed to the same when better informed.' On
October 16 he submitted it, formally prepared, to a public
notary. While Staupitz and Link, warned to consult then'
personal safety, and despairing of any good result, left
Augsburg, Luther still remained there. He even addressed
on October 17 a letter to Caietan, conceding to him the
utmost he thought possible. Moved, as he said, by the
persuasions of his dear father Staupitz and his brother
Link, he offered to let the whole question of indulgences
rest, if only that which drove him to this tragedy were
put a stop to ; he confessed also to having been too violent
and disrespectful in dispute. In after years he said to his
friends, when referring to this concession, that God had
never allowed him to sink deeper than when he had yielded
so much. The next day, however, he gave notice of his

n8 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

appeal to the legate, and told him he did not wish longer to
waste his time in Augsburg. To this letter he received no
answer.

Luther waited, however, till the 20th. He and his
Augsburg patrons began to suspect whether measures had
not already been taken to detain him. They therefore had
a small gate in the city wall opened in the night, and sent
with him an escort well acquainted with the road. Thus
he hastened away, as he himself described it, on a hard-
trotting hack, in a simple monk's frock, with only knee-
breeches, without boots or spurs, and unarmed. On the
first day he rode eight miles, as far as the little town of
Monheim. As he entered in the evening an inn and dis-
mounted in the stable, he was unable to stand from fatigue,
and fell down instantly among the straw. He travelled
thus on horseback to Wittenberg, where he arrived well
and joyful, on the anniversary of his ninety-five theses. He
had heard on the way of the Pope's brief to Caietan, but
he refused to think it could be genuine. His appeal, mean-
while, was delivered to the Cardinal at Augsburg, who had
it posted by his notary on the doors of the cathedral.

From Augsburg Luther was followed by a letter from
Caietan to the Elector, full of bitter complaints against
him. He had formed, he said, the highest hopes of his
spiritual recovery, and had been grievously disappointed in
him ; the Elector, for his own honour and conscience' sake,
must now either send him to Eome or, at least, expel him
from his territory, since measures of fatherly kindness
had failed to make him acknowledge his error. Frederick,
after waiting four weeks, returned a quiet answer, showing
how the conduct of Luther quite agreed with his own view
of the matter. He would have expected that no recantation
would have been required of Luther till the matter in
dispute had been satisfactorily examined and explained.
There were a number of learned men, also, at foreign
universities, from whom he could not yet have learned with

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 119

certainty that Luther's doctrine was unchristian ; while, tc
say the least, it was chiefly those whose personal and
financial interests were affected by it that had become his
opponents. He would propose therefore that the judgment
of several universities should be obtained, and have the
matter disputed at a safe place. Luther, however, to whom
the Elector showed this letter, at once declared himself
ready to go into exile, but would not be deterred from publish-
ing new declarations or taking further steps.

He had a report of his conference with Caietan printed,
with a justification of himself to the readers. And in this
he advanced propositions against the Papacy which entirely
shook its whole foundation. Already, in the solutions to
his theses, he had incidentally, and without attracting
further notice by the remark, spoken of a time when the
Papacy had not yet acquired supremacy over the Universal
Church, thereby contradicting what the Komish Church
maintained and had made into a • dogma, namely, that the
Papal see possessed this primacy by original institution
through Christ, and by means of immutable Divine right.
He now expressed this opinion as a positive proposition
The Papal monarchy, he declared, was only a Divine institu-
tion in the sense in which every temporal power, advanced
by the progress of historical development, might be called
so also. ' The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.'

Without waiting for an answer direct from Eome,
Luther now abandoned all thoughts of success with Leo X.
On November 28 he formally and solemnly appealed from
the Pope to a General Christian Council. By so doing he
anticipated the sentence of excommunication which he was
daily expecting. With Eome he had broken for ever, unless
she were to surrender her claims and acquisitions of more
than a thousand years.

After once the first restraints of awe were removed with
which Luther had regarded the Papacy, behind and beyond
the matter of the indulgences, and he had learned to know

120 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the Papal representative at Augsburg, and made a stand
against his demands and menaces, and escaped from his
dangerous clutches, he enjoyed for the first time the fearless
consciousness of freedom. He took a wider survey around
him, and saw plainly the deep corruption and ungodliness
of the powers arrayed against him. His mind was impelled
forward with more energy as his spirit for the fight was
stirred within him. Even the prospect that he might have
to fly, and the uncertainty whither his flight could be, did
not daunt or deter him. His thought was how he could
throw himself with more freedom into the struggle, if no
longer hampered by any obligations to his prince and his
university. Writing at that time to his friend Link, to
inform him of his new publications and his appeal, he
invited his opinion as to whether he was not right in
saying that the Antichrist of whom St. Paul speaks (2 Thess.
ii.), ruled at the Papal court. ' My pen,' he went on to
say, ' is already giving birth to something much greater,
I know not whence these thoughts come. The work, as
far as I can see, has hardly yet begun, so little reason have
the great men at Piome for hoping it is finished.' Again,
while informing Spalatin, through whom the Elector always
urged him to moderation, of new Papal edicts and regula-
tions aimed against him, he declared, * The more those
Eomish grandees rage and meditate the use of force, the
less do I fear them. All the more free shall I become to
fight against the serpents of Pvome. I am prepared for all,
and awrait the judgment of God.'

He was really prepared for exile or flight at any moment.
At Wittenberg his friends were alarmed by rumours of
designs on the part of the Pope against his life and liberty,
and insisted on his being placed in safety. Flight to France
was continually talked of ; had he not followed in his appeal
a precedent set by the university of Paris ? We certainly
cannot see how he could safely have been conveyed thither,
or where, indeed, any other and safer place could have been

LUTHER AT AUGSBURG BEFORE CAIETAN. 121

found for him. Some urged that the Elector himself should
take him into custody and keep him in a place of safety,
and then write to the legate that he held him securely in
confinement and was in future responsible for him. Luther
proposed this to Spalatin, and added, ' I leave the decision
of this matter to your discretion ; I am in the hands of
God and of my friends.' The Elector himself, anxious also
in this respect, arranged early in December a confidential
interview between Luther and Spalatin at the Castle of
Lichtenberg. He also, as Luther reported to Staupitz,
wished that Luther had some other place to be in, but he
advised him against going away so hastily to France. His
own wish and counsel, however, he refrained as yet from
making known. Luther declared that at all events, if a
ban of excommunication were to come from Eome, he would
not remain longer at Wittenberg. On this point also the
prince kept secret his resolve.

122 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

CHAPTER IV.

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG, WITH IP

RESULTS.

The rumours of the dangers that threatened Luther from
Rome had a good foundation. A new agent from there
had now arrived in Germany, the Papal chamberlain,
Charles von Miltitz.

His errand was designed to remove the chief obstacle to
summoning the Wittenberg heretic to Rome, or imprison-
ing him there, namely, the protection afforded him by his
sovereign. Miltitz was of a noble Saxon family, himself a
Saxon subject by birth, and a friend of the Electoral court.
He brought with him a high token of favour for the Elector.
The latter had formerly expressed a wish to receive the
golden rose ; a symbol solemnly consecrated by the Pope
himself, and bestowed by his ambassadors on princely per-
sonages to this day, for services rendered to the Church or
the Papal see. The bearer of this decoration was Miltitz,
and on October 24, 1518, he was furnished with a whole
armful of Papal indulgences.

Above all, he took with him two letters of Leo X. to
Frederick. The Elector, his beloved son, so ran the first
missive, was to receive the most holy rose, anointed with the
sacred chrism, sprinkled with scented musk, consecrated
with the Apostolic blessing, a gift of transcendent worth and
the symbol of a deep mystery, in remembrance and as a pledge
of the Pope's paternal love and singular good-will, conveyed
through an ambassador specially appointed by the Pope,
and charged with particular greetings on that behalf &c. &c.

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 123

Such a costly gift, proffered him by the Church through her
Pontiff, was intended to manifest her joy at the redemption
of mankind by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and the
rose was an appropriate symbol of the quickening and
refreshing body of our Redeemer. These high-sounding
and long-winded expressions showed very plainly the real
object of the Pope. The divine fragrance of this flower was
so to permeate the inmost heart of Frederick, the ' beloved
son,' that he being filled with it, might with pious mind
receive and cherish in his noble breast those matters which
Miltitz would explain to him, and whereof the second brief
made mention ; and thus the more fervently comprehend
the Pope's holy and pious longing, agreeably to the hope he
placed in him. The other letter, however, after referring
to the call for aid against the Turks, goes on to speak of
Luther. From Satan himself came this son of perdition,
who was preaching notorious heresy, and that chiefly in
Frederick's own land. Inasmuch as this diseased sheep
must not i>e suffered to infect the heavenly flock, and as
the honour and conscience of the Elector also must needs
be stained by his presence, Miltitz was commissioned to
take measures against him and his associates, and Frederick
was exhorted in the name of the Lord to assist him with his
authority and favour.

Papal instructions in writing to the same effect were
given to Miltitz for Spalatin, as Frederick's private secretary,
and for Degenhard Pfeffinger, a counsellor of the Elector.
To Spalatin in particular, the most trusted adviser of
Frederick in religious matters, it was represented, how
horrible was the heretical audacity of this ' son of Satan,'
and how he imperilled the good name of the Elector. In
like manner the chief magistrate of Wittenberg was re-
quired by letter to give assistance to Miltitz, and enable
him to execute freely and unhindered the Pope's commands
against the heretic Luther, who came of the devil. Miltitz
took with him similar injunctions for a number of other

124 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

towns in Germany, to ensure safe passage for himself and
his prisoner to Kome, in the event of his arresting Luther.
He was armed, it was said, with no less than seventy letters
of this kind.

As regards the rose, Miltitz had strict orders to make
the actual delivery of it to Frederick depend wholly on his
compliance with Caietan's advice and will. It was deposited
first of all in the mercantile house of the Fuggers at Augs-
burg. This public precaution was taken, to prevent Miltitz
from parting with the precious gift in haste or from too
anxious a desire for the thanks and praise in prospect,
before there were reasonable grounds for hoping that it had
served its purpose.

Towards the middle of December a Papal bull, issued on
November 9, was published by Caietan in Germany, which
finally laid down the doctrine of indulgences in the sense
directly combated by Luther, and, although not mentioning
him by name, threatened excommunication against all who
shared the errors which had lately been promulgated in
certain quarters.

So utterly did the Pope appear to have set his face
against all reconciliation or compromise. And yet, as the
event showed, room was left for Miltitz in his secret
instructions to try another method, according as circum-
stances might dictate.

Miltitz, after having crossed the Alps, sought an inter-
view first with Caietan in Southern Germany, and, as the
latter had gone to the Emperor in Austria, he paid a visit
to his old friend Pfeffinger, at his home in Bavaria. Con-
tinuing his journey with him, he arrived on December 25
at the town of Gera, and from there announced his arrival
to Spalatin, who was at Altenburg. On the way he had had
constant opportunities of noticing, both among learned men
and the common people, signs of sympathy for the maE
against whom his mission was directed, and a feeling hostile
to Kome, of which those at Eome neither knew nor cared

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 125

to know. He was a young and clever man, full of the
enjoyment of life, who knew how to mix and converse with
people of every kind, and even to touch now and then on
the situation and doings at Eome which were exciting such
lively indignation. Tetzel also, whom Miltitz summoned to
meet him, wrote complaining that the people in Germany
were so excited against him by Luther, that his life would
not be safe on the road. Miltitz accordingly, with his usual
readiness, resolved speedily on an attempt to make Luther
harmless by other means. After paying his visit to the
Elector at Altenburg, he agreed to treat with him there in
a friendly manner.

The remarkable interview with Luther took place at
Spalatin's house at Altenburg in the first week of the new
year. Miltitz feigned the utmost frankness and friendliness,
nay, even cordiality. He himself declared to Luther, that
for the last hundred years no business had caused so much
trouble at Eome as this one, and that they would gladly
there give ten thousand ducats to prevent its going further.
He described the state of popular feeling as he had found it
on his journey ; three were for Luther where only one was
for the Pope. He would not venture, even with an escort
of 25,000 men, to carry off Luther through Germany to
Kome. ' Oh, Martin ! ' he exclaimed, ' I thought you were
some old theologian, who had carried on his disputations
with himself, in his warm corner behind the stove. Now I
see how young, and fresh, and vigorous you are.' Whilst
plying him with exhortations and reproaches about the in-
jury he did to the Eomish Church, he accompanied them
with tears. He fancied by this means to make him his
confidant and conformable to his schemes.

Luther, however, soon showed him that he could be his
match in cleverness. He refrained, he tells us, from letting
Miltitz see that he was aware what crocodile's tears they
were. Indeed he was quite prepared, as he had been before
under the menaces of a Papal ambassador, so now under

126 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

nis persuasions and entreaties, to yield all that his conscience
allowed, but nothing beyond, and then quietly to let matters
take their own course.

In the event of Miltitz withdrawing his demand for a
retractation, Luther agreed to write a letter to the Pope,
acknowledging that he had been too hasty and severe, and
promising to publish a declaration to German Christendom
urging and > admonishing reverence to the Romish Church.
His cause, and the charges brought against him, might be
tried before a German bishop, but he reserved to himself
the right, in case the judgment should be unacceptable, of
reviving his appeal to the Church in Council. Personally
he desired to desist from further strife, but silence must
also be imposed on his adversaries.

Having come to this point of agreement, they partook of
a friendly supper together, and on parting Miltitz bestowed
on him a kiss.

In a report given of this conference to the Elector,
Luther expressed the hope that the matter by mutual silence
might ' bleed itself to death,' but added his fear that, if the
contest were prolonged, the question would grow larger and
become serious.

He now wrote his promised address to the people. He
bated not an inch from his standpoint, so that, even if he
should for the future let the controversy rest, he might not
appear to have retracted anything. He allowed a value to
indulgences, but only as a recompense for the ' satisfaction '
given by the sinner, and adding that it was better to do
good than to purchase indulgences. He urged the duty of
holding fast in Christian love and unity, and notwithstand-
ing her faults and sins, to the Romish Church, in which St.
Peter and St. Paul and hundreds of martyrs had shed their
blood, and of submitting to her authority, though with
reference only to external matters. Propositions going be-
yond what was here conceded he wished to be regarded as
in no way affecting the people or the common man. They

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG 127

should be left, he said, to the schools of theology, and
learned men might fight the matter out between them.
His opponents indeed, if they had admitted what Luther
declared in this address, would have had to abandon their
main principles, for to them the doctrine that indulgences and
Church authority meant far more than was here stated was
a truth indispensable for salvation.

Luther wrote his letter to the Pope on March 3, 1519.
It began with expressions of the deepest personal humility,
but differed significantly in the quiet firmness of its tone
from his other letter of the previous year to Leo X. Quietly,
but as resolutely, he repudiated all idea of retracting his prin-
ciples. They had already, through the opposition raised by
his enemies, been propagated far and wide, beyond all his
expectations, and had sunk into the hearts of the Germans,
whose knowledge and judgment were now more matured.
If he let himself be forced to retract them he would
give occasion to accusation and revilement against the
Eomish Church ; for the sake of her own honour he must
refuse to do so. As for his battle against indulgences, his
only thought had been to prevent the Mother Church from
being defiled by foreign avarice, and that the people should
not be led astray, but learn to se. love before indulgences.

Meanwhile, on January 12, Maximilian had died. He
was the last national Emperor with whom Germany was
blessed ; in character a true German, endowed with rich gifts
both mental and physical, a man of high courage and a
warm heart, thoroughly understanding how to deal with
high and low, and to win their esteem and love. By Luther
too we hear him often spoken of afterwards in terms of affec-
tionate remembrance : he tells us of his kindness and courtesy
to everyone, of his efforts to attract around him trusty and
capable servants from all ranks, of his apt remarks, of his
tact in jest and in earnest ; further of the troubles he had
in his government of the Empire and with his princes, of
the insolence he had to put up with from the Italians, and of

128

THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the1 humour with which he speaks of himself and his
imperial rule. ' God,' said he on one occasion, ' has well
ordered the temporal and spiritual government ; the former

Fig. 13.— The Emperor Maximilian. (From his Portrait by Albert Diirer.)

is ruled over by a chamois-hunter, and the latter by a
drunken priest ' (Pope Julius). He called himself a king of
kings, because his German princes only acted like kings

MIL TITZ A ND THE DISP UTA TION A T LEIPZIG. 1 29

when it suited them. With the lofty ideas and projects which
he cherished as sovereign, he stood before the people as a
worthy representative of Imperialism, even though his eyes
may have been fixed in reality more on his own family and
the power of his dynasty, than on the general interests of
the Empire. The ecclesiastical grievances of the German
nation, which we heard of at the Diet of 1518, had long
engaged his lively sympathy, though he deemed it wiser to
abstain from interfering. He had an opinion on these
matters and on the necessary reforms drawn up by the
Humanist Wimpheling. Nay, he had once, in his contest
with Pope Julius, worked to bring about a general reforming
Council. The question forces itself on the mind — however
vain such an inquiry may be from a historical point of
view — what turn Luther's great work, and the fortunes of
the German nation and Church would have taken, if Maxi-
milian had identified his own imperial projects with the
interests for which Luther contended, and thus had come
forward as the leader of a great national movement. As it
was, Maximilian died without ever having realised more of
the importance of this monk than was shown by his remark
about him, already noticed, at Augsburg.

His death served to increase the respect which the Pope
found it necessary to show to the Elector Frederick. For,
pending the election of a new Emperor, the latter was
Administrator of the Empire for Northern Germany, and
the issue of the election depended largely on his influence.
On June 28 Maximilian's grandson, King Charles of Spain,
then nineteen years of age, was chosen Emperor. He was
a stranger to German life and customs, as the German
people and the Eeformer must constantly have had to feel.
For the Pope, however, these considerations were of further
import, for in his dealings with the new Emperor he had to
proceed at least with caution, since the latter was aware
that he had done his best to prevent his election. On the
other hand, Charles was under an obligation to the Elector,

K

i3o THE BREACH WITH ROME.

being mainly indebted to him for his crown, and unable to
come himself immediately to Germany to accept his rule.

Miltitz meanwhile had further prosecuted his scheme,
without revealing his own ultimate object. He chose for a
judge of Luther's cause the Archbishop of Treves, and
persuaded him to accept the office. Early in May he had
an interview with Caietan at Coblentz, the chief town of the
archiepiscopal diocese, and now summoned Luther to appear
there before the Archbishop.

But Miltitz took good care to say nothing about the opin-
ions entertained at Eome of his negotiations with Luther.
Would Luther venture from his refuge at Wittenberg
without the consent of his faithful sovereign, who himself
evinced suspicion in the matter, and set forth in the dark, so
to speak, on his long journey to the two ambassadors of the
Pope ? He would be held a fool, he wrote to Miltitz, if he
did ; moreover, he did not know where to find the money
for the journey. What took place between Eome and
Miltitz in this affair was altogether unknown to Luther, as
it is to us.

Whilst this attempt at a mediation— if such it could be
called — remained thus in abeyance, a serious occasion of
strife had been prepared, which caused the seemingly
muffled storm to break out with all its violence.

Luther's colleague, Carlstadt, who at first, on the
appearance of Luther's theses, had viewed them with
anxiety, but who afterwards espoused the new Wittenberg
theology, and pressed forward in that path, had had a
literary feud since 1518 with Eck, on account of his attacks
upon Luther. The latter, meeting Eck at Augsburg in
October, arranged with him for a public disputation in
which Eck and Carlstadt could fight the matter out.
Luther hoped, as he told Eck and his friends, that there
might be a worthy battle for the truth, and the world should
then see that theologians could not only dispute but come
to an agreement. Thus then, at least between him and

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 131

Eck, there seemed the prospect of a friendly under tan ding.
The university of Leipzig was chosen as the scene of the
disputation. Duke George of Saxony, the local ruler, gave
his consent, and rejected the protest of the theological
faculty, to whom the affair seemed very critical.

When, however, towards the end of the year, Eck pub-
lished the theses which he intended to defend, Luther found
with astonishment that they dealt with cardinal points of
doctrine, which he himself, rather than Carlstadt, had
maintained, and that Carlstadt was expressly designated the
1 champion of Luther.' Onty one of these theses related
to a doctrine specially defended by Carlstadt, namely, that of
the subjection of the will in sinful man. Among the other
points noticed was the denial of the primacy of the Eomish
Church during the first few centuries after Christ. Eck
had extracted this from Luther's recent publications ; so
far as Carlstadt was concerned, he could not have read or
heard a word of such a statement.

Luther fired up. In a public letter addressed to
Carlstadt he observed that Eck had let loose against him, in
reality, the frogs or flies intended for Carlstadt, and he
challenged Eck himself. He would not reproach him for
having so maliciously, uncourteously, and in an untheological
manner charged Carlstadt with doctrines to which he was a
stranger ; he would not complain of being drawn himself
again into the contest by a piece of base flattery on Eck's
part towards the Pope ; he would merely show that his
crafty wiles were well understood, and he wished to exhort
him in a friendly spirit, for the future, if only for his own
reputation, to be a little more sensible in his stratagems.
Eck might then gird his sword upon his thigh, and add a
Saxon tri-umph to the others of which he boasted, and so at
length rest on his laurels. Let him bring forth to the
world what he was in labour of ; let him disgorge what had
long been lying heavy on his stomach, and bring his vain-
glorious menaces at length to an end.

E2

T32 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Luther was anxious, indeed, apart from this special
reason, to be allowed to defend in a public disputation the
truth for which he was called a heretic ; he had made this
proposal in vain to the legate ' at Augsburg. He now de-
manded to be admitted to the lists at Leipzig. He wished
in particular, to take up the contest, openly and decisively,
about the Papal primacy.

His friends just on this point grew anxious about him.
But he prepared his weapons with great diligence, studying
thoroughly the ecclesiastical law-books and the history of
ecclesiastical law, with which until now he had never
occupied himself so much. Herein he found his own con-
clusions fully confirmed. Nay, he found that the tyranni-
cal pretensions of the Pope, even if more than a thousand
years old, derived their sole and ultimate authority from
the Papal decretals of the last four centuries. Arrayed
against the theory of that primacy were the history of the
previous centuries, the authority of the Council of Nice in
325, and the express declaration of Scripture. This he
stated now in a thesis, and announced his opinion in print.

We have already noticed the high importance of this
historical evidence in regard to matters of belief, as well as
to the entire conception of Christian salvation, and of the
true community or Church of Christ. The real essence
of the Church is shown not to depend on its constitution
under a Pope. And the course of history, wherein God
allowed the Christians of the West to come under the
external authority of the Pope, just as people come to be
under the rule of different princes, in no way sub-
jected, or should subject, the whole of Christendom to his
dominion. The millions of Eastern Christians, who are not
his subjects, and who are therefore condemned by the Pope
as schismatics, are all, as Luther now distinctly declares, none
the less members of Christendom, of the Church, of the
Body of Christ. Participation in salvation does not exist
only in the community of the Church of Borne, For

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 133

Christendom collectively, or the Universal Church, there is
no other Head but Christ. Luther now also discovered and
declared that the bishops did not receive their posts over
individual dioceses and flocks until after the Apostolic
period ; the episcopate therefore ceases to be an essential
and necessary element of the Church system. What, then,
is really essential for the continuance of the Church, and
how far does it extend ? Luther answers this question with
the fundamental principle of Evangelical Protestantism.
The Church, he says, is not at Rome only, but there, and
there only, where the Word of God is preached and believed
in; where Christian faith, hope, and charity are alive, where
Christ, inwardly received, stands before a united Christen-
dom as her bridegroom. This Universal Church, says
Luther, is the one intended by the Creed, when it says ' I
believe in a Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.'
The mere external power which the Popedom exercised
in its government of the Church, in the imposition of out-
ward acts and penalties— appeared, so far, to Luther a
matter of indifference in respect to religion and the salvation
of souls. But it was another and more serious matter
with regard to the claim to Divine right asserted for that
power by the Papacy, and to its extension over the
soul and conscience, over the community of the faithful,
nay, over the fate of departed souls. Here Luther saw an
invasion of the rights reserved by God to Himself, and a
perversion of the true conditions of salvation, as established
by Christ and testified in Scripture. Here he saw a human
potentate and tyrant, setting himself up in the place of
Christ and God. He shuddered, so he wrote to his friends,
when, in reading the Papal decretals, he looked further into
the doings of the Popes, with their demands and edicts,
into this smithy of human laws, this fresh crucifixion
of Christ, this ill-treatment and contempt of His people.
As previously he had said that Antichrist ruled at the
Papal court, so now, in a letter of March 13, 1519, he wrote

134

THE BREACH WITH ROME.

privately to Spalatin, 'I know not whether the Pope is
Antichrist himself, or one of his Apostles,' so antichristian

Fig. 14. — Duke George of Saxony. (From an old woodcut.)

seemed to him the institution of the Papacy itself, with its
principles and its fruits. Of these decretals he says hi

MILT1TZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 135

another letter: 'If the death-blow dealt to indulgences
has so damaged the see of Borne, what will it do when, by
the will of God, its decretals have to breathe their last ? Not
that I glory in victory, trusting to rny own strength, but
my trust is in the mercy of God, whose wrath is against
the edicts of man.'

Luther earnestly entreated Duke George to allow him
to take part in the disputation. His Elector, who no doubt
was personally desirous of a public, free, and learned treat-
ment of the questions at issue, had already given him his
permission. Luther's understanding with Miltitz presented
no obstacle, since the silence required as a condition on
the part of his opponents, had never been observed, nor
indeed had ever been enjoined or recommended either by
Miltitz or any other authorities of the Church. His appli-
cation, nevertheless, to the Duke was referred to Eck for his
concurrence, and the latter let him wait in vain for an answer.
At last the Duke drew up a letter of safe-conduct for Carl-
stadt and all whom he might bring with him, and under
this designation Luther was included. He might safely
trust himself to George's word as a man and a prince.

The whole disputation was opposed and protested against
from the outset by the Bishop of Merseburg, the chancellor
of the university of Leipzig and the spiritual head of the
faculty of theology. The project must have been inad-
missible in his eyes from the mere fact that Eck's theses
revived the controversy about indulgences, which was
supposed to have been settled once and for ever by the
Papal bull. He appealed to this pronouncement as a
reason for not holding it. Inasmuch as the disputation
took place, in spite of this protest, with the Duke's consent,
it became an affair of all the more importance.

Duke George himself took an active interest in the
matter. His was a robust, upright, and sturdy character. He
was a staunch and faithful upholder of the ecclesiastical tra-
ditions in which he had grown up ; it was difficult for him

1 36 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

to extend his views. But he was honestly interested in the
truth. He wished that his own men of learning might
have a good scuffle in the lists for the truth's sake. On
hearing of the objections of the Leipzig theologians to ihe
disputation, his remark was, ' They are evidently afraid to
be disturbed in their idleness and guzzling, and think that
whenever they hear a shot fired, it has hit them.' An
unusually large audience being expected for the disputation,
he had the large hall of his Castle of Pleissenburg cleared
and furnished for the occasion. He commissioned two of his
counsellors to preside, and was anxious himself to be present.
How much depended on the impression which the disputa-
tion itself, and Luther with it, should produce upon him !

On June 24 the Wittenbergers entered Leipzig, with
Carlstadt at their head. An eye-witness has described the
scene : ' They entered at the Grimma Gate, and their
students, two hundred in number, ran beside the carriages
with pikes and halberds, and thus accompanied their
professors. Dr. Carlstadt drove first ; after him, Dr. Martin
and Philip (Melancthon) in a light basket carriage with
solid wooden wheels (Eollwagen) ; none of the wagons were
either curtained or covered. Just as they had passed the
town-gate and had reached the churchyard of St. Paul, Dr.
Carlstadt's carriage broke down, and the doctor fell out
into the dirt; but Dr. Martin and his Jidus Achates Philip,
drove on.' Meanwhile, an episcopal mandate, forbidding the
disputation on pain of excommunication, had been nailed
up on the church doors, but no heed was paid to it. The
magistrate even imprisoned the man who posted the bill
for having done so without his permission.

Before commencing the disputation, certain preliminary
conditions were arranged. The proceedings were to be
taken down by notaries. Eck had opposed this, fearing to be
hindered in the free use of his tongue, and not liking to
have all his utterances in debate so exactly defined. The
protocols, however, were to be submitted to umpires charged

M1LTITZ AXD THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 137

to decide the result of the disputation, and were to be pub-
lished after their verdict was announced. In vain had both
Luther and Carlstadt, who refused to bind themselves to
this decision, opposed this stipulation. The Duke, however,
insisted on it, as a means of terminating judicially the contest.

Early on the morning of June 27 the disputation was
opened with all the worldly and spiritual solemnity that
could be given to a most important academical event.
First came an address of welcome in the hall, spoken by
the Leipzig professor, Simon Pistoris ; then a mass in the
church of St. Thomas, whither the assembly repaired in a
procession of state ; then a still grander procession to the
Pleissenburg, where a division of armed citizens was
stationed as a guard of honour ; then a long speech on the
right way of disputing, delivered in the Castle hall by the
famous Peter Schacle Mosellanus, a professor at Leipzig
and a master of Latin eloquence ; and lastly the chanting
three times of the Lathi hymn, ' Come, Holy Ghost,' the
whole assembly kneeling. At two o'clock the disputation
between Eck and Carlstadt began. They were placed oppo-
site each other in pulpits.

A host of theologians and learned laymen had nocked
together to the scene. From Wittenberg had come the
Pomeranian Duke Barnim, then Eector of the University.
Prince George of Anhalt, then a young Leipzig student,
and afterwards a friend of Luther, was there. Duke George
of Saxony frequently attended the proceedings, and listened
attentively. His court jester is said to have appeared with
him, and a comic scene is mentioned as having occurred
between him and Eck, to the great diversion of the meeting.
Frederick the Wise was represented by one of his counsellors,
Hans von Planitz.

Eck and Carlstadt contended for four days, from June
27 to July 3, on the question of free will and its relations
to the operation of the grace of God. It was a wearisome
contest, with disconnected texts from Scripture and pas-

138 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

sages from old teachers of the Church, but without any
of the lively and free animation of moral and religious
spirit, which, in Luther's treatment of such questions,
carried his hearers with him. In power of memory, as
in readiness of speech, Eck proved himself superior to
his opponent. On Carlstadt bringing books of reference
with him, he got this disallowed, and had now the advan-
tage that no one could check his own quotations. Thus,
confident of triumph, he proceeded to his contest with
Luther.

Luther meanwhile, on June 29, the day of St. Peter
and St. Paul, had preached a sermon at the request of
Duke Barnim at the Castle of Pleissenburg, wherein, re-
ferring to the Gospel of the day, he treated, in a simple,
practical, and edifying manner, of the main point of the
disputation between Eck and Carlstadt, and at the same
time of the point he himself was about to argue, namely,
the meaning of the power of the keys granted to St. Peter.
In opposition to him, Eck delivered four sermons in various
churches of the town (none of which Luther would have
been allowed to preach in), and speaking of them after-
wards he said, ' I simply stirred up the people to be
disgusted with the Lutheran errors.' The members of the
Leipzig university kept peevishly aloof from their brethren
of Wittenberg throughout the disputation, while paying all
possible homage to Eck. When Luther one day entered a
church, the monks who were conducting service hastily
took away the monstrance and the elements, to avoid
having them defiled by his presence. And yet he was after-
wards reproached for neglecting to go to church at Leipzig.
In the hostelries where the Wittenberg students lodged,
such violent scenes occurred between them and their Leipzig
brethren, that halberdiers had to be stationed at the tables
to keep order.

Duke George invited the heretic, together with Eck and
Carlstadt, to his own table, and to a private audience as

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 139

well. So frank and genial was he, and so intent on making
himself acquainted with Luther and his cause. Luther spoke
of him then as a good, pious prince, who knew how to speak
in princely fashion. The Duke, however, told him at that
audience, that the Bohemians entertained great expectations
of him; and yet George, who on his mother's side was
grand-son to Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, was anxious to
have all taint of the hateful Bohemian heresy most carefully
avoided. On this point Luther remarked to him that he
knew well how to distinguish between the pipe and the piper,
and was only sorry to see how accessible princes might be
to the influence of foreign agitations. Leipzig altogether
must have been a strange and uncomfortable atmosphere for
Luther.

On Monday, July 4, he entered the lists with Eck. On
the morning of that day he signed the conditions, which
had been arranged in spite of his protest ; but he stated
that, against the verdict of the judges, whatever it might be,
he maintained the right of appeal to a Council, and would
not accept the Papal curia as his judge. The protocol on
this point ran as follows : * Nevertheless Dr. Martin has
stipulated for his appeal, which he has already announced,
and so far as the same is lawful, will in no wise abandon
his claim thereto. He has stipulated further that, for
reasons touching himsslf, the report of this disputation
shall not be submitted for approval to the Papal court.'

The appearance of Luther a. this disputation has given
occasion for the first description of his person which we
possess from the pen of a contemporary. Mosellanus,
already mentioned, says of him in a letter : ' He is of
middle stature, his body thin, and so wasted by care and
study, that nearly all his bones may be counted. He is in
the prime of life. His voice is clear and melodious. His
learning and his knowledge of Scripture are extraordinary ;
he has nearly everything at his fingers' ends. Greek and
Hebrew he understands sufficiently well to give his judgment

140

THE BREACH WITH ROME.

AETHLRNA \?$L SVAE A\EtfTl$ 51MVLACHR4 UVTHERYS
ExPfUMTTXT WLTVS CERA LVCAE OCCIDVCtf

Fig. 15. — Luther. (From an engraving of Cranach, in 1520.)

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 141

on the interpretation of the Scriptures. In speaking, he
has a vast store of subjects and words at his command ; he
is moreover refined and sociable in his life and manners ; he
has no rough Stoicism or pride about him, and he under-
stands how to adapt himself to different persons and times.
In society he is lively and witty. He is always fresh, cheer-
ful, and at his ease, and has a pleasant countenance, however
hard his enemies may threaten him, so that one cannot but
believe that Heaven is with him in his great undertaking.
Most people however reproach him with wanting moderation
in polemics, and with being more cutting than befits a
theologian and one who propounds something new in sacred
matters.' His ability as a disputant was afterwards ac-
knowledged by Eck, who in referring to this tourney, quoted
Aristotle's remark that when two men dispute together, each
of whom has learned the art, there is sure to be a good
disputation.

Eck is described by Mosellanus as a man of a tall,
square figure, with a voice fit for a public crier, but more
coarse than distinct, and with nothing pleasant about it ; with
the mouth, the eyes, and the whole appearance of a butcher
or soldier, but with a most remarkable memory. In power
of memory and*elocution he surpassed even Luther ; but in
solidity and real breadth of learning, impartial men like
Pistoris gave the palm to Luther. Eck is said to have
imitated the Italians in his great animation of speech, his
declamation, and gesticulations with his arms and his whole
body. Melancthon even said in a letter after the disputa-
tion, ' Most of us must admire Eck for his manifold and
distinguished intellectual gifts.' Later on he calls him,
1 Eckeckeck, the daws' -voice.' At any rate Eck displayed a
rare power and endurance in those Leipzig days, and under-
stood above all how to pursue with cleverness the real object
he had in view in his contest with Luther.

The two began at once with that point which Eck had
singled out as the chief object of debate, and about which

i42 THE BREACH WITH ROME

Luther had advanced his boldest proposition, namely, the
question of the Papal power.

After lengthy discussions on the evidence of texts of
Scripture ; on the old Fathers of the Church, to whom the
Papal supremacy was unknown j on the Western Church of

Fig. 16.— Dk. John Eck. (From an old woodcut.)

middle ages, by whom that supremacy was acknowledged
at an earlier period than Luther would admit ; on the non-
subjection to Eome of Eastern Christendom, to whom Luther
referred, and whom Eck with a light heart put outside the
pale of salvation, Eck on the second day of the disputation

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 143

passed, after due premeditation, from the ecclesiastical
authorities he had quoted in favour of the Divine right of
the Papal primacy, to the statements of the English heretic
Wicliffe, and the Bohemian Huss, who had denied this
right, and had therefore been justly condemned. He was
bound to notice them, he said, since, in his own frail and
humble judgment, Luther's thesis favoured in the highest
degree1 the errors of the Bohemians, who, it was reported,
wished him well for his opinions. Luther answered him as
he had done in each case before. He condemned the sepa-
ration of the Bohemians from the Catholic Church, on the
ground that the highest right derived from God was that
of love and the Spirit, and he repudiated the reproach
which Eck sought to cast upon him. But he declared
at the same time that the Bohemians on that point had
never yet been refuted. And with perfect self-conviction
and calm reflection he proceeded to assert that among
the articles of Huss some were fundamentally Christian
and Evangelical, such as, for example, his statements that
there was only one Universal Church (to which even
Greek Christendom had always and still belonged), and
that the belief in the supremacy of the Church of Borne
was not necessary to salvation. No man, he added, durst
impose upon a Christian an article of belief which was
antiscriptural ; the judgment of an individual Christian
must be worth more than that of the Pope or even of a
Council, provided he has a better ground for it.

That moment, when Luther spoke thus of the doctrines
of Huss, a heretic already condemned by a Council and
proscribed in Germany, was the most impressive and im-
portant in the whole disputation. An eye-witness, who sat
below Duke George and Barnim, relates that the Duke, on
hearing the words, shouted out in a voice heard by all the
assembly, ' A plague upon it ! ' and shook his head, and put
both hands to his sides. The whole audience, variously
as they thought of the assertion, must have been fairly

144 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

astounded. Luther, it was true, had already stated in
writing that a Council could err. But now he declared him-
self for principles which a Council, namely that of Constance,
solemnly appointed and unanimously recognised by the
whole of Western Christendom, had condemned, and thus
openly accused that Council of error in a decision of the
most momentous importance. Nay more, that decision
had been concurred in by the very men who, while recog-
nising the Papal primacy, strenuously defended against
Papal despotism the rights of General Councils, and of
the nations and states which they represented. The
Western Catholic Church entertained, as we have seen,
a diversity of views as to the relative authority of the
Popedom, as an institution of Christ, and that which ap-
pertained to Councils. Luther now, by denying the Divine
institution and authority of the Papacy, seemed to have
broken with all authority whatsoever existing in the Church,
and with every possible exercise of the same.

Luther himself does not appear to have considered at
the moment this extent of his acknowledgment of the
' Christian ' character of some of Huss's articles, nor "to
have adequately reflected on the. attitude of direct oppo-
sition in which it placed him to the Council of Constance.
When Eck declared it ' horrible ' that the ' reverend father '
had not shrunk from contradicting that holy Council, as-
sembled by consent of all Christendom, Luther interrupted
him with the words, ' It is not true that I have spoken against
the Council of Constance.' He then went on to draw the
inference that the authority of the Council, if it erred in re-
spect of those articles, was consequently fallible altogether.

Some days later, and after further consideration, Luther
produced four propositions of Huss, which were perfectly
Christian, although they had been formally rejected by the
Council. He sought means, nevertheless, to preserve for
the Council its dignity. As for these rejected articles, he
said, it had declared only some to be heretical, and others to

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 145

be simply mistaken, and the latter, at all events, must not
be counted as heresies — nay, he took the liberty of sup-
posing that the former were interpolations in the text of the
Council's resolutions. He would grant, further, that the de-
cisions of a Council in matters of faith must at all times be
accepted. And in order to guard himself against any mis-
understanding and misconstruction, he once broke off from
the Latin, in which the whole disputation had been con-
ducted, and declared in German that he in no way desired
to see allegiance renounced to the Romish Church, but that
the only question in dispute was whether its supremacy
rested on Divine right— that is to say, on direct Divine
institution in the New Testament, or whether its origin and
character were simply such as the Imperial Crown, for
example, possessed in relation to the German nation. He
was well aware how charges of heresy and apostasy were
raised against him, and how industriously Eck had pro-
moted them. It was only with pain and inward struggles
that he stood out, Bible in hand, against the Council of
Constance and such a general gathering of Western Christen-
dom. But not a step would he go towards any recognition
of the Papacy as an institution resting on Scripture. He
insisted that even a Council could not compel him to do
this, or make an essential article of Christian belief out
of anything not found in the Bible. Again and again he
declared that even a Council could err.

For five whole days they contested this main point of
the disputation, without arriving at any further result.

The other subjects of discussion, relating to purgatory,
indulgences, and penance, were after this of very little
importance. With regard to indulgences even Eck now
displayed striking moderation. The dispute on the correct
conception of purgatory led to a new and important decla-
ration by Luther as to the power of the Church in rela-
tion to Scripture. Eck quoted as Biblical proof a passage
from the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, which

L

i46 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

although not originally included in the records of the Old
Covenant, had been accepted by the middle ages as of equal
authority with the other Biblical writings. For the first
time Luther now protested against the equal value thus
assigned to them, and especially against the Church con-
ferring upon them an authority they did not possess.

The disputation between Eck and Luther lasted till
July 13. Luther concluded his argument with the words :
* I am sorry that the learned doctor only dips into Scripture
as deep as the water- spider into the water — nay, that he
seems to fly from it as the devil from the Cross. I prefer,
with all deference to the Fathers, the authority of Scripture,
which I herewith recommend to the arbiters of our cause.'

After this Carlstadt and Eck had only a short passage
of arms. The disputation was to be concluded on the 15th,
as Duke George wished to receive the Elector of Branden-
burg on a visit to the Pleissenburg. With regard to the
universities, to whom the report of the disputation was to
be submitted, those agreed upon were Paris and Erfurt,
but neither of the two would undertake so responsible a
task.

Eck left the disputation with triumph, applauded by his
friends and rewarded by Duke George with favours and
honours. He followed up his fancied victory by further
exciting the people against Luther, and pointing out to
them in particular the sympathy between him and Huss.
He wrote even to the Elector Frederick from Leipzig, pro-
posing that he should have Luther's books burnt. The two
men henceforth and for ever were mutual enemies, with no
dealings together but those of heated controversy in writing.
Eck's chief efforts were directed to securing Luther's formal
and public condemnation.

At Leipzig Luther had been watched with the utmost
suspicion. The common people had actually been told that
there was something mysterious in the little silver ring he
wore on his finger, very likely a small charm with the devil

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AI LEIPZIG. 147

inside. It was even remarked on and wondered at that he
carried a bunch of flowers in his hand, which he would look
at and smell. From that time probably originated the saying
of a devout old dame at Leipzig, as published by one of his
theological opponents, the old woman having once lived at
Eisleben with Luther's mother, that her son Martin was the
fruit of an embrace by the devil.

For real information, however, about Luther at Leipzig,
and the impression he produced by his arguments, more is
to be gathered from the effect of his public appearance
there during this disputation, than from a whole heap of
printed matter. We allude not only to the educated laity
and men of learning, but to the mass of the people who
shared in the excitement caused by this controversy. A
few months later we hear an opponent complain that
Luther's teaching had given rise to so much squabbling,
discord, and rebellion among the people, that ' there
was absolutely not a town, village, or house, where
men were not ready to tear each other to pieces on his
account.'

Luther returned to Wittenberg full of dejection. The
time at Leipzig had only been wasted ; the disputation had
been unworthy of the name ; Eck and his friends there
had cared nothing whatever about the truth. Eck, he
said, had made more clamour in an hour than he or
Carlstadt could have done in a couple of years, and yet all
the time the question at issue was one of peaceful and
abstruse theology. His disappointment, however, did not
refer, as people perhaps might have imagined, to the treat-
ment his thesis on the Papal primacy had met with, or to
any embarrassment occasioned him on that account. On
the contrary, while complaining of the unworthy character
of the disputation, he excepted that particular thesis.
He alluded rather to the superficiality and want of in-
terest with which such important ques ions as justification
by faith, and the sinfulness attaching even to the best

l2

1 48 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

works of man, were passed over or evaded. On all the
points which he had wished to contend for and expound
at Leipzig, he now published further explanations. And
with regard to the Councils, he declared in still stronger
terms than at Leipzig, that they certainly might err and
had erred even in the most important matters; one had
no right to identify either them or the Pope with the
Church.

From this he proceeded to explain his true relations
with the Bohemians. The theologian Jerome Emser, a friend
of Eck, and a favourite of Duke George, contributed in
his own way to this end. He had had a hot discussion
with Luther before the disputation at Leipzig, in which he
reproached him with causing trouble in the Church. He
now prepared a remarkable public letter to a high Catholic
ecclesiastic at Prague, of the name of Zack. Whilst assert-
ing in it that the Bohemian schismatics appealed to Luther
and had actually offered prayers and held services for him
during the disputation, he announced, with feigned kindness
to Luther, that the latter, on the contrary, had eagerly re-
pudiated at Leipzig any fellowship with them, and had
denounced their apostasy from Borne. Luther detected in
all this, mere trickery and malice, and we also can only
recognise in it a crafty attempt to ruin Luther's position
all round. If, says Luther, he were to accept in silence the
praise here meted out to him, he would seem to have re-
tracted his whole teaching, and laid down his arms before
Eck ; if, on the other hand, he were to disclaim it, he would
be cried down at once as a patron of the Bohemians,
and charged with base ingratitude to Emser. Accordingly,
in a small pamphlet, he broke out, full of wrath and bitter-
ness, against Emser, who replied to him in a similar tone.
But he represented the case with great clearness. If his
doctrines had pleased the Bohemians, he would not retract
them on that account. He had no desire to screen their
errors, but he found on their side Christ, the Scriptures, and

MILTITZ AND THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPZIG. 149

the sacraments of the Church, and therewith a Christian
hatred of the worldliness, immorality, and arrogance of
the Eomish clergy. Nay, he rejoiced to think that his
doctrines pleased them, and would be glad if they pleased
Jews and Turks, and Eraser, who was enthralled in godless
error, and even Eck himself.

Letters were now already on the way to Luther from
two ecclesiastics of Prague, Paduschka and Eossdalovicky,
members of the Utraquist Hussite Church, which in opposi-
tion to Eome insisted on the sacramental cup being given
to the laity. They assured Luther of then- joyful and
prayerful sympathy with him in his struggle. One of them
sent him a present of knives of Bohemian workmanship,
the other a writing of Huss upon the Church. Luther
accepted the presents with cordiality, and sent them his
own writings in return. With regard to separation from
the Komish Church, the experience of Huss plainly showed
him how impossible that Church made it, even to one whose
heart was heavy at the thought of leaving her, to remain
in her communion.

Thus the contest at Leipzig was now over, whilst in the
meantime at Frankfort-on-the-Main, after the election of
the new Emperor, the Elector Frederick and the Archbishop
of Treves consulted together about an examination, of Luther
before the Archbishop, as proposed by Miltitz. Both wished
to postpone it till the Diet, then about to be held. Miltitz,
however, notwithstanding the result of the disputation and
the further declarations of Luther, still clung to his plan of
mediation. He arranged once more an interview with Luther
on October 9 at Liebenwerda, when the latter renewed his
promise to appear before the Archbishop, but he failed to
induce the Elector to let Luther travel with him to the
Archbishop. For the delivery of the golden rose, when
it at last took place, he was richly rewarded with money.
But the fruitlessness of his negotiations with Luther had
become apparent.

ISO THE BREACH WITH ROME.

CHAPTEE V.

luther's further work, writings, and inward progress,

UNTIL 1520.

Luther looked upon his disputation at Leipzig as an idle
waste of time. He longed to get back to his work at
Wittenberg. He remained, in fact, devoted with his whole
soul to his official duties there, though to the historian, of
course, his work and struggles in the broader and general
arena of the Church engage the most attention. He might
well quarrel with the occasions that constantly called him
out to it, as so many interruptions to his proper calling.

His energy there in the pulpit was as constant as his
energy in the professor's chair. He glowed with zeal to
unfold the one truth of salvation from its original source,
the Scriptures, and to declare it and impress it on the
hearts of his young pupils and his Wittenberg congre-
gation, of educated and uneducated, of great and small.
But he also wished to lay it before his students as a truth
for life. With this object, he continued active with his
pen, both in the Latin and the German languages. He
was glad to turn to this from the questions of ecclesiastical
controversy, which had formed the subject of his dis-
putation, and of the writings referring to it. It was
enough for him to show forth simply the merciful love of
God and of the Saviour Christ, to point out the simple
road of faith, and to destroy all trust in mere outward
works, in one's own merit and virtue. Only to this ex-
tent, and because the authority pretended by the Church
was opposed to this truth and this road to salvation,

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 151

he was forced here also, and in face of his congregation, to
wield the sword of his eloquence against that authority,
and this he did with a zeal regardless of consequences. In
all that he did, in his lectures as well as in his sermons, in
his exposition of God's word in particular, as in his own
polemics, he always threw his whole personality into the
subject. We see him inwardly moved and often elated by
the joyful message which he himself had learned, and had
to announce to others, inspired by love to his fellow-
Christians, whom he would wish to help save, and zealous
even to anger for the cause of his Lord. At the same
time, it cannot be denied that he was often carried away
by the vehemence of his views, which saw at once in every
opponent an uncompromising enemy to the truth ; and
that his naturally passionate temperament was often power-
fully stirred, though even then his whole tone and demeanour
was blended with outbursts of the noblest and the purest
zeal.

In his academical lectures Luther still remained faith-
ful to that path which he had struck out on entering the
theological faculty. He wished simply to propound the
revealed word of God, by explaining the books of the Old
and New Testaments ; though he took pains in these
lectures, in which he devoted several terms to the study of a
single book, to explain thoroughly and impressively the most
important doctrines of Christian faith and conduct. Thus he
occupied himself during the time of the contest about in-
dulgences, and after the autumn of 1516, with the Epistle to
the Galatians, wherein he found comprised clearly and briefly
the fundamental truth of salvation, the doctrine of the way
of faith, of God's laws of requirements and punishments, and
of gospel grace. He then turned anew to the Psalms, dissatis-
fied with his own earlier exposition of them. His exposition
of St. Paul's Epistle he had sent to the press whilst engaged
in his preparations for the Leipzig disputation. His oppo-
nents, he says here, might busy themselves with their much

152 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

larger affairs, with their indulgences, their Papal bulls, and
the power of the Church, and so on ; he would retire to
smaller matters, to the Holy Scriptures and to the x\postle,
who called himself not a prince of Apostles, but the least
of the Apostles. He also now began the printing of his
work on the Psalms.

Crowds of listeners gathered around him ; his audience
at times numbered upwards of four hundred. During the
three years following the outbreak of the quarrel about in-
dulgences, the number of those who matriculated annually
at the university increased threefold. Luther wrote to
Spalatin that the number of students increased mightily,
like an overflowing river ; the town could no longer contain
them, many had to leave again for want of dwellings.

To this prosperity of the university Melancthon espe-
cially contributed. He had been appointed, as we have
already mentioned, first professor of Greek by the Elector,
and in addition to the young theologians, he attracted a
number of other students to his lectures. Of still greater
importance for Luther and his work, was the personal
friendship and community of ideas, convictions, and aspi-
rations which had bound the two men together in close
intimacy from their first acquaintance. Their paths in life
had hitherto been very different. Philip Schwarzerd, sur-
naraed Melancthon, born in 1497 of a burgher's family of the
little town of Bretten in the Palatinate, had passed a happy
youth, and harmoniously and peacefully developed into man-
hood. He had had from early life capable teachers for his
education, and was under the protection of the great philologist
Eeuchlin, who was a brother of his grandmother. He then
showed gifts of mind wonderfully rich and early ripening.
Besides the classics, he learnt mathematics, astronomy, and
law. He also studied the Scriptures, grew to love them, and
even when a youth had made himself familiar with their
contents, without having had first to learn to know their
worth by a heavy sense of inward need, by inward struggles

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 153

or a long unsatisfied hunger of the soul. Thus, at seven-
teen he was already master of arts, and at twenty-one was
appointed professor at Wittenberg. The young man, with
an insignificant, delicate frame, and a shy, awkward de-

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meanour, yet with a handsome, powerful forehead, an in-
tellectual eye, and refined, thoughtful features, effaced at
once, by his inaugural address, any doubts arising from his
youthful appearance.

154 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

In this speech, however, he already declared that the
chief object of classical studies was to teach theologians to
draw from the original fount of Holy Scripture. He him-
self delivered a lecture on the New Testament immediately
after one on Homer. And it was the Lutheran conception
of the doctrine of salvation which he adopted in his own
continued study of the Bible.

The year of his arrival at Wittenberg he celebrated
Luther in a poem. He accompanied him* to Leipzig.
During the disputation there he is said to have assisted his
friend with occasional suggestions or notes of argument,
and thereby to have roused the anger of Eck. He now
took the lowest theological degree of bachelor, to qualify
himself for giving theological lectures on Scripture. He
who from early youth had enjoyed so abundantly the
treasures of Humanistic learning, and had won for him-
self the admiration of an Erasmus, now found in this
study of Scripture a ' heavenly ambrosia ' for his soul, and
something much higher than all human wisdom. And
already, in independent judgment on the traditional doc-
trines of the Church, he not only kept pace with Luther
but even outwent him. It was he who attacked the
dogma of transubstantiation, according to which in the
mass the bread and wine of the sacrament are so changed
by the consecration of the priest into the body and blood
of our Lord, that nothing really remains of their original
substance, but they only appear to the senses to retain it.

Luther at once recognised with joy the marvellous
wealth of talent and knowledge in his new colleague, whose
senior he was by fourteen years, besides being far ahead of
him in theological study and experience. We have seen,
during Luther's stay at Augsburg, how closely his heart
clung to Melancthon and to the ' sweet intercourse ' with
him ; we know of no other instance where Luther formed a
friendship so rapidly. The more intimately he knew him,
the more highly he esteemed him. When Eck spoke

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC 155

slightingly of him as a mere paltry grammarian, Luther ex-
claimed, ' I, the doctor of philosophy and theology, am not
ashamed to yield the point, if this grammarian's mind
thinks differently to myself ; I have done so often already,
and do the same daily, because of the gifts with which God
has so richly filled this fragile vessel ; I honour the work of
my God in him.' ' Philip,' he said at another time, ' is a
wonder to us all ; if the Lord will, he will beat many
Martins as the mightiest enemy to the devil and Scholasti-
cism ; ' and again, ' This little Greek is even my master in
theology.' Such were Luther's words, not uttered to par-
ticular friends of Melancthon, in order to please them, nor
in public speeches or poetry, in which at that time friends
showered fulsome flattery on friends, but in confidential
letters to his own most intimate friends, to Spalatin, Staupitz,
and others. So willing and ready was he, whilst himself on
the road to the loftiest work and successes, to give precedence
to this new companion whom God had given him. Luther
also interested himself with Spalatin to obtain a higher
salary for Melancthon, and thus keep him at Wittenberg.
In common with other friends, he endeavoured to induce
him to marry ; for he needed a wife who would care for
his health and household better than he did himself. His
marriage actually took place in 1520, after he had at first
resisted, in order to allow no interruption to his highest
enjoyment, his learned studies.

At the university Luther was also busily engaged with
the necessary preparations for many lectures that were not
theological. He steadily persisted in his efforts to secure
the appointment of a competent professor of Hebrew. He
also worked hard to get a qualified printer, the son of the
printer Lotter at Leipzig, to settle at the university, and
set up there for the first time a press for three languages,
German, Latin, and Greek. For everything of this kind
that was submitted to the Elector, who took a constant
interest in the prosperity of the university, his friend Spalatin

156 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

was his confidential intermediary. As early as 1518 Luther
had expressed to hint the wish and hope that Wittenberg, in
honour of Frederick the Wise, should, by a new arrange-
ment of study, become the occasion and pattern for a general
reform of the universities. In addition to his constant and
arduous labours of various kinds, he took part also in the
social intercourse of his colleagues, although he complained
of the time he lost by invitations and entertainments.

In the town church at Wittenberg he continued his
active duties not only on Sundays but during the week.
His custom was to expound consecutively in a course of
sermons the Old and New Testaments, and he explained
particularly to children and' those under age, the Lord's
Prayer and the Ten Commandments. This work alone,
he once complained to Spalatin, required properly a man
for it and nothing else. These services he gave to the
town congregation gratuitously. The magistracy were
content to recognise them by trifling presents now and
then ; for instance, by a gift of money on his return from
Leipzig, where he had had to live on his own very scanty
means. In simple, powerful, and thoroughly popular
language, Luther sought to bring home to the people who
filled his church, the supreme truth he had newly gained.
Here in particular he employed his own peculiar German,
as he employed it also in his writings.

Both he and Melancthon formed a close personal in-
timacy with several worthy townsmen of Wittenberg. The
most prominent man among them, the painter Lucas
Cranach, from Bamberg, owner of a house and estate at
Wittenberg, the proprietor of an apothecary's and also of a
stationer's business, besides being a member of the magis-
tracy, and finally burgomaster, belonged to the circle of
Luther's nearest friends. Luther took a genuine pleasure
in Cranach's art, and the latter, in his turn, soon employed
it in the service of the Reformation.

While occupied thus in delivering simple and practical

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 157

sermons to his congregation in the town, he continued to
publish written works of the same character and purport, in
addition to his labours in the field of learned ecclesiastical
controversy, thus showing the love with which he worked
for them at large in this matter. These writings were little
books, tracts, so-called sermons. It did not disturb him, he
once said, to hear daily of certain people who despised his
poverty because he only wrote little books and German
sermons for the unlearned laymen. ' Would to God,' he

Fig. 18. — Lucas Cranach. (From a Portrait by himself.)

said, ' I had all my life long and with all my power served a
layman to his improvement ; I should then be content to
thank God, and would very willingly after that let all my
little books perish. I leave it to others to judge whether
writing large books and a great number of them constitutes
art and is useful to Christianity ; I consider rather, even if
I cared to write large books after their art, I might do that
quicker x with God's help, than making a little sermon in my

158 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

fashion. I have never compelled or entreated an}7one to
listen to me or read my sermons. I have given freely to the
congregation of what God has given to me and I owe to
them ; whoever does not like His word, let him read and
listen to others.'

In this spirit he composed, after the Leipzig disputation,
a little consolatory tract for Christians, full of reflection and
wisdom. He dedicated it to the Elector, an illness of
whom had prompted him to write it. Even his most
bigoted opponents could not withhold their approbation
of the work. Luther's pupil and biographer Mathesius,
thought there had never been such words of comfort
wrritten before in the German language. In a similar strain
Luther wrote about preparation for dying, the contempla-
tion of Christ's sufferings, and other matters of like kind.
He explained to the people in a few pages the Ten Com-
mandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. At the
desire of the Elector, conveyed to him through Spalatin,
and notwithstanding the difficulty he had in finding time
for such a large work, he applied himself to a practical
exposition of the Epistles and Gospels read in church,
intended principally for the use of preachers.

At the same time he made steady progress with his own
Scriptural researches, which led him away more and more
from the main articles of the purely traditional doctrines of
the Church. And the light which dawned upon him in
these studies he took pains to impart at once to his con-
gregation. But it was no mere negative or hypercritical
interest that led him on and induced him to write. In
connection with the saving efficacy of faith, which he had
gathered from the Bible, new truths, full of import, un
folded themselves before him. On the other hand, such
dogmas of the Church as he found to have no warrant in
Scripture, nor to harmonise Tp'th the Scriptural doctrine of
salvation, frequently faded from his notice, and perished
even before he was fully conscious of their hollowness.

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 159

The new knowledge had ripened with him before the old
husk was thrown away.

Thus he now learnt and taught others to understand
anew the meaning of the Christian sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. The Church of the middle ages beheld
with wonder in this sacrament the miracle of transub-
stantiation. The body of our Lord, moreover, here present
as the object of adoration, was to serve above all as the
bloodless repetition of the bloody sacrifice for sin on
Golgotha, to be offered to God for the good of Christen-
dom and mankind. To offer that sacrifice was the highest
act which the priesthood could boast of, as being thought
worthy to perform by God. This whole mysterious, sacred
transaction was clothed in the mass, for the eye and ear
of the members of the congregation, with a number of
ritualistic forms. In giving them, moreover, the con-
secrated elements in the sacrament, the priest alone par-
took of the cup. Luther, on the contrary, found the whole
meaning of that institution of the departing Saviour,
according to His own words, ' Take, eat, and drink,' in the
blessed and joyful communion here prepared by Him for
the congregation of receivers, each one of whom was verily
to partake of it in faith. Here, as he taught in a sermon
on the Sacrament in 1519, they were to celebrate and enjoy
real communion ; communion with the Saviour, who feeds
them with His flesh and blood; communion with one
another, that they, eating of one bread, should become one
cake, one bread, one body united in love ; communion in
all the benefits purchased by their Saviour and Head ; and
communion also in all gifts of grace bestowed upon His
people, in all sufferings to be endured, and in all virtues
alive in their hearts. Above all, he appealed to Christ's
own words, that He had shed His blood for the forgiveness
of sins. Here at His hojy Supper, He wished to dis-
pense this forgiveness, and, with it, eternal life to all
His guests ; He pledged it to them here by the gift of

160 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

His own body. Luther, but only incidentally, remarked in
this sermon, when Bpeaking of the enp : ' I should be well
pleased to see the Church decree in a General Council, that
communion in both kinds should be given to the laity as to
the priests.' Even then he regarded as unfounded that
idea of sacrifice at the mass which in his later writings he
so strenuously denied and combated. At the same time he
pointed out the sacrifice which Christendom, and indeed
every Christian, must continually offer to God, namely, the
sacrifice to God of himself and all that he possesses, offered
with inward humility, prayer, and thankfulness. The
question as to a change of the elements, which Melancthon
had already denied, Luther passed by as an unnecessary
subtlety. Lastly, together with the sacrifice supposed to be
offered by the priest, he dismissed also the notion of a pecu-
liar priesthood ; for with the real sacrifice offered by Chris-
tians, as he understood it, all became priests. Instead of the
difference theretofore existing between priests and laymen,
he would recognise no difference among Christians but such
as was conferred by the public ministration of God's word
and sacrament.

Whilst discoursing in a sermon, in a similar manner, on
the inner meaning of baptism, he passed froni the vow of
baptism to the vow of chastity, so highly prized hi the
Catholic Church. He admits this vow, bu*t represents the
former one as so immeasurably higher and all-embracing, as
to deprive the Church of her grounds for attaching such
value to the latter.

He enlarged on moral and religious life in general in a
long sermon ■ On Good Works.' which he dedicated early in
15*20 to Duke John, the brother of the Elector. In clear
and earnest language he explained how faith itself, on
which everything depended, was a matter of innermost
moral life and conduct, nay, the very highest work con-
formable to God's will ; and further, how that same faith
cannot possibly remain merely passive, but, on the contrary,

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 161

the faithful Christian must himself become pleasing to
God, on whose grace he relies, must love Him again, and
fulfil His holy Will with energy and activity in all duties and
relations of life. These duties he proceeds to explain accord-
ing to the Ten Commandments. He will not, however, have
the conscience further laden with duties imposed by the
Church, for which no corresponding moral obligation exists.
He turns then with earnest exhortation to rebuke certain
common faults and crimes in the public life of his nation,
the gluttony and drunkenness, the excessive luxury, the
loose living, and the usury, which was then the subject of
so much complaint. Against this last practice he preached
a special sermon, in which, agreeably with the older teach-
ing of the Church, he spoke of all interest taken for money
as questionable, inasmuch as Jesus had exhorted only to
lending without looking for a return. The creditor, at any
rate, he said, should take his share of the risks to which
his capital, in the hands of the debtor, was exposed from
accident or misadventure.

The essence of the Church of Christ he placed in that
inner communion of the faithful with one another and their
heavenly Head, on which he dwelt with such emphasis in
connection with the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. For
the stability and prosperity of this Church he considered no
externals necessary beyond the preaching of God's Word and
the administration of the Sacraments, as ordained by
Christ, — no Romish Popedom, nor any other hierarchical
arrangements. But in the same spirit of love and brotherly
fellowship with which he embraced Hussites, as well as the
Eastern Christians who were denounced as Schismatics, he
still wished to hold fast to the visible community of the
Church of Eome, declining to identify it with the corrupt
Romish Curia. That love, he said, should make him assist
and sympathise with the Church, even in her infirmities
and faults.

He was anxious also to fulfil personally all the minor

M

f62 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

duties incumbent on him as a monk and a priest. And yet
the higher obligations of his calling, that incessant activity
in proclaiming the word, both by speech and writing, were of
much greater importance in his eyes. He performed with
diligence such duties as the regular repetition of prayers,
singing, reading the Horce, and never dreamed of venturing
to omit them. He relates afterwards, how wonderfully in-
dustrious he had been in this respect. Often, if he hap-
pened to neglect these duties during the week, he would
make up for it in the course of the Sunday from early
morning till the evening, going without his breakfast and
dinner. In vain his friend Melancthon represented to him
that, if the neglect were such a sin, so foolish a reparation
would not atone for it.

Measures, however, were now taken by the Eomish
Church and its representatives, which, by attacking the
word, as he preached it, drove him further into the battle.

It will be remembered that the Papal bull, directed
against his theses on indulgences, had not actually men-
tioned him by name. Contemptuously, therefore, as the
Pope had spoken of him as an execrable heretic, he had
never yet uttered a formal public judgment upon him. Two
theological faculties, those of the universities of Cologne
and Louvain, were the first to pronounce an official con-
demnation of him and his writings. The latter were to be
burnt, and their author compelled publicly to recant. This
sentence, though pronounced after the disputation at
Leipzig, related only to a small collection of earlier writings.
In a published reply he dismissed, not without scorn, these
learned divines, who, in a spirit of vain self-exaltation and
without the smallest grounds, had presumed to pass
sentence on Christian verities. Their boasting, he said,
was empty wind ; then- condemnation frightened him no
more than the curse of a drunken woman.

The first official pronouncement of a German bishop
touched him more nearly. This was a decree, issued in

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 163

January 1520 by John, Bishop of Meissen, from his re-
sidence at Stolpen. Herein, Luther's one statement about
the cup, which the Church, as he said, would do well to
restore to the laity, was picked out of his Sermon on the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The people were to be
warned against the grievous errors and inconveniences
which were bound to ensue from such a step ; and the ser-
mon was to be suppressed. Luther was now classed as an
open ally of the Hussites, whose very ground of contention
was the cup. Duke George in alarm complained of him to
the Elector Frederick. It was rumoured about him even
that he had been born and educated among the Bohemians.

To this episcopal note, which he ridiculed in a pun,
Luther published a short and pungent reply in Latin and
German. He was particularly indignant that this occasion
should have been seized to tax his sermon with false
doctrine, since the wish he there expressed did not contain,
as even his enemies must admit, anything contrary to any
dogma of the Church. For his enemies, no doubt, this one
point was of more practical importance than many devia-
tions from orthodoxy with which they might have reproached
him in his doctrine of salvation ; for it concerned a jealously
guarded privilege of their priestly office, and was connected
with the ' Bohemian heresy.' As for Huss, however, Luther
now confessed without reserve the sympathy he shared with
his evangelical teaching. He had learned to know him better
since the Leipzig disputation. He now wrote to Spalatin :
'I have hitherto, unconsciously, taught everything that
Huss taught, and so did John Staupitz, in short we are all
Hussites, without knowing it. Paul and Augustine are
also Hussites. I know not, for very terror, what to think
as to God's fearful judgments among men, seeing that the
most palpable evangelical truth known for more than a
century, has been burnt and condemned, and nobody has
ever ventured to say so.'

On the part of the Elector, Luther still continued to

M 2

1 64 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

reap the benefit of that placid good-will which disregarded
all attempts, either by friendly words or menaces, to set
that prince against him. Luther for this thanked him
publicly, without meeting with any demurrer from the
Elector, as well in a dedication of the first part of his new
work on the Psalms, which he had sent to the press early
in 1519, as in another prefixed to his tract on Christian
comfort, already noticed. This last work he had been
encouraged to write by Spalatin, the confidant of the sick
prince whom it was intended to please. In the dedication
prefixed to the Psalms, he expressed his joy at hearing how
Frederick had declared in a conversation reported by Stau-
pitz, that all sermons, made by man's wit and uttering man's
opinions, were cold and powerless, and the Scriptures alone
inspired with such marvellous power and majesty that one
must needs say, ' There is something more there than mere
Scribe and Pharisee ; there is the finger of God ; ' and how,
when Staupitz had concurred in the remark, the prince had
taken his hand and said, ' Promise me that you will always
think thus.' Luther also thanked Frederick for having, as
all his subjects knew, taken more care of his safety than
he had done himself. In his thoughtlessness, he himself
had thrown the die, and had already prepared himself for
the worst, and only hoped to be able to retire into some
corner, when his prince had come forward as his champion.

At the same time the Elector remained constant in
his efforts to check the impetuosity of Luther. We have
noticed how he encouraged him, through Spalatin, to peace-
ful work in the service of Christian preaching. When the
episcopal missive from Stolpen threatened to make the
storm break out afresh, he sent, by Spalatin, an urgent
exhortation to Luther to restrain his pen, and further
advised him to send letters of explanation, in a conciliatory
spirit, to Albert, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence,
and the Bishop of Merseburg.

Luther wrote to both in a tone of perfect dignity.

LUTHER S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 165

He begged them not to lend an ear to the complaints and
calumniations which were being circulated against him,
especially in reference to giving the cup to the laity, and
to the Papal power, until the matter had been seriously
examined. He spoke at the same time of malicious
accusers, who on those points held secretly the same
opinions as himself.

But from this contest with the Bishop of Meissen he
refused to withdraw. To Spalatin he broke out again in
February 1520, in terms more decided than any he had
previously given vent to, and which led people to expect still
sharper utterances. ' Do not suppose,' he said, ' that the cause
of Christ is to be furthered on earth in sweet peace: the
Word of God can never be set forth without danger and dis-
quiet : it is a Word of infinite majesty, it works great things,
and is wonderful among the great and the high ; it slew, as
the prophet says (Psalm Ixxviii. 31), the wealthiest of them,
and smote down the chosen ones of Israel. In this matter
one must either renounce peace or deny the Word; the
battle is the Lord's, who has not come to bring peace into
the world.' Again he says : ' If you would think rightly of
the Gospel, do not believe that its cause can be advanced
without tumult, trouble, and uproar. You cannot make a
pen out of a sword : the Word of God is a sword ; it is
war, overthrow, trouble, destruction, poison ; it meets the
children of Ephraim, as Amos says, like a bear on the road,
or like a lioness in the wood.' Of himself he adds : ' I can-
not deny that I am more violent than I ought to be ; they
know it, and therefore should not provoke the dog. How
hard it is to moderate one's heat and one's pen you can
learn for yourself. That is the reason why I was always
unwilling to be forced to come forward in public ; and the
more unwilling I am, the more I am drawn into the contest ;
that this happens so is due to those scandalous libels which
are heaped against me and the Word of God. So shameful
are they that, even if my heat and my pen did not carry

166 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

me away, a very heart of stone would be moved to seize a
weapon, how much more myself, who am hot and whose
pen is not entirely blunt.'

The two dignitaries of the Church answered not un-
graciously. They merely expressed an opinion that he was
too violent, and that his writings would have a questionable
influence with the mass of the people. They refrained from
giving judgment on the matter ; a proof that, in the Catholic
Church in Germany, the questions raised by Luther could
not then have been considered of such importance as the
upholders of the strict Papal system maintained and desired.
Even Albert, the Cardinal, Archbishop, and Primate of the
German Church, ventured to speak of the whole question
about the Divine or merely human right of the Papacy as
an insignificant affair, which had but little to do with real
Christianity, and therefore should never have become the
occasion of such passionate dispute.

From Kome was now awaited the supreme judicial
decision as to Luther and his cause. The Pope had already
in 1518 indicated clearly enough to Frederick the Wise in
what sense he intended to give this decision. But it kept
on being delayed, because, on the one hand, it still appeared
necessary to act with caution and consideration, and, on
the other, because Roman arrogance continued to under-
estimate the danger of the German movement. Meanwhile
Eck, by a report of his disputation and by letters had
stirred the fire at Rome. The theologians of Cologne and
Louvain worked in the same direction, and called on the
whole Dominican Order to assist them with their influence.
The Papal pretensions which Luther had disputed were
now for the first time proclaimed in all their fulness of
audacity and exaggeration. Luther's old opponent Prierias,
in a new pamphlet, extended them to the temporal as well
as the spiritual sovereignty of the world ; the Pope, he
said, was head of the Universe. Eck now devoted an entire
treatise to justifying the Divine right of the Papal primacy,

LUTHER'S FURTHER WORK, WRITINGS, ETC. 167

resting his proofs boldly, and without any attempt at critical
inquiry, on spurious old documents. With this book he
hastened in February 1520 to Kome, in order personally
to push forward and assist in publishing the bull of excom-
munication which was to demolish his enemy and extinguish
the flame he had kindled.

But Luther's work, in proportion as it advanced and
became bolder, had stirred already the minds of the people
both wider and deeper. Opponents of Eome who had risen
up against her in other quarters, on other grounds, and
with other weapons, now ranged themselves upon his side.
Among all alike the ardour of battle grew the more powerful
and violent, the more it was attempted to smother them
with edicts of arbitrary power.

1 63 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

CHAPTER VI.

ALLIANCE WITH THE HUMANISTS AND THE NOBILITY.

We have already seen how astonished Miltitz was at the
sympathy with Luther which he found among all classes
of the German people. The growth of this sympathy
is shown in particular by the increasing number of printed
editions of his writings ; the perfect freedom then enjoyed
by the press contributed largely to their wide circulation.
In 1520 alone there were more than a hundred editions of
Luther's works in German. Though the ordinary book-
trade as now carried on was then unknown, there were a
multitude of colporteurs actively employed in going with
books from house to house, some of them merely in the
interests of their trade, others also as emissaries of those
who were friends of the cause, thus intended to be furthered.
As reading was a difficult matter to the masses, and even to
many of the higher classes, there were travelling students
who went about to different places, and proffered their
assistance. The earnest, deeply instructive contents of
Luther's small popular tracts met the needs of both the
educated and uneducated classes, in a manner never done
by any other religious writings of that time, and served to
stimulate their appetite for more. And to this was added
the strong impression produced directly on their minds by
the elementary exposition of his doctrine, irreconcilable
with all notions of the Church system hitherto prevailing,
and stigmatised by his enemies as poison. All, in short,
that this condemned heretic wrote, became dear to the
hearts of the people.

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 169

Luther found now, moreover, most valuable allies in the
leading champions of that Humanistic movement, the im-
portance of which, as regards the culture of the priesthood
and the religious and ecclesiastical development of that time,
we had occasion to notice during Luther's residence at the
university of Erfurt. That Humanism, more than any-
thing else, represented the general aspiration of the age to
attain a higher standard of learning and culture. The
alliance between Luther and the Humanists inaugurated
and symbolised the union between this culture and the
Evangelical Eeformation.

Luther, even before entering the convent, had formed a
friendship with at least some of the young * poets,' or
enthusiasts of this new learning. Later on, when, after the
inward struggles and heart- searchings of those gloomy years
of monastic experience, the light dawned upon him of his
Scriptural doctrine of salvation, we find him expressing his
sympathy and reverence for the two leading spirits of the
movement, Keuchlin and Erasmus ; and this notwithstand-
ing the fact that he never approved the method of defence
adopted by the supporters of the former, nor could ever
conceal his dislike of the attitude taken up by Erasmus in
regard to theology and religion.

Meanwhile, such Humanists as wished to enjoy the ut-
most possible freedom for their own learned pursuits flocked
around Keuchlin against his literary enemies* and cared
very little about the authorities of the Church. The bold
monk and his party excited neither their interest nor their
concern. Many of them thought of him, no doubt, when
he was engaged in the heat of the contest about indulgences,
as did Ulrich von Hutten, who wTrote to a friend* : ' A quarrel
has broken out at Wittenberg between two hot-headed
monks, who are screaming and shouting against each
other. It is to be hoped that they will eat one another up.'
To such men the theological questions at issue seemed not
worth consideration. At the same time they took care to

i;o THE BREACH WITH ROME.

pay all necessary respect to the princes of the Church, who
had shown favour to them personally and to their learning,
and did homage to them, notwithstanding much that must
have shocked them in their conduct as ecclesiastics. Thus
Hutten did not scruple to enter the service of the same
Archbishop Albert who had opened the great traffic in
indulgences in Germany, but who was also a patron of
literature and art, and was only too glad to be recognised
publicly by an Erasmus. We hear nothing of any remon-
strances made to him by Erasmus himself. In the same
spirit that dictated the above remark of Hutten, Mosellanus,
who opened with a speech the disputation at Leipzig, wrote
to Erasmus during the preparations for that event. There
will be a rare battle, he said, and a bloody one, coming off
between two Scholastics ; ten such men as Democritus
would find enough to laugh over till they were tired. More-
over, Luther's fundamental conception of religion, with his
doctrine of man's sinfulness and need of salvation, so far
from corresponding, was in direct antagonism with that
Humanistic view of life which seemed to have originated
from the devotion to classical antiquity, and to revive the
proud, self-satisfied, independent spirit of heathendom.
Even in an Erasmus Luther had thought he perceived an
inability to appreciate his new doctrine.

Melancthon's arrival at Wittenberg ,was, in this respect,
an event of the first importance. This highly-gifted young
man, who had united in his person all the learning and
culture of his time, whose mind had unfolded in such
beauty and richness, and whose personal urbanity had so
endeared him to men of culture wherever he went, now
found his true happiness in that gospel and in that path of
grace which Luther had been the first to make known.
And whilst offering the right hand of fellowship to Luther,
he continued working with energy in his own particular
sphere, kept up hi.s intimacy with his fellow-labourers
therein, and won their respect and admiration. Humanists

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 171

at a distance, meanwhile, must have noticed the fact, that
ths most violent attacks against Luther proceeded from
those very quarters, as for instance, from Hoogstraten, and
afterwards from the theological faculty at Cologne, where
Keuchlin had heen the most bitterly persecuted. At length
the actual details of the disputation between Luther and
Eck opened men's eyes to the magnitude of the contest
there waged for the highest interests of Christian life and
true Christian knowledge, and to the greatness of the man
who had ventured single-handed to wage it.

At Erfurt Luther had found already in the spring of
1518, on his return from the meeting of his Order at
Heidelberg, in pleasing contrast to the displeasure he had
aroused among his old teachers there, a spirit prevailing
among the students of the university, which gave him hope
that true theology would pass from the old to the young,
just as once Christianity, rejected by the Jews, passed from
them to the heathen. Those well-wishers and advisers who
took his part at Augsburg, when he had to go thither to meet
Caietan, were friends of Humanistic learning. Among the
earliest of those, outside Wittenberg, who united that learning
with the new tendency of religious teaching, we find some
prominent citizens of the flourishing town of Nuremberg,
where, as we have seen, Luther's old friend Link was also
actively engaged. Already before the contest about in-
dulgences broke out, the learned jurist Scheuerl of that
place had made friends with Luther, whom the next year
he speaks of as the most celebrated man in Germany. The
most important of the Humanists there, Willibald Pirkheimer,
a patrician of high esteem and an influential counsellor,
and who had once held local military command, corre-
sponded with Luther, and after learning from him the pro-
gress of his views and studies concerning the Papal power,
made his Leipzig opponent the object of a bitter anony-
mous satire, ' The Polished Corner ' (Eck). Another
learned Niiremberger, the Secretary of the Senate, Lazarus

172 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Spengler, was on terms of close Christian fellowship with
Luther: he published in 1519 a ' Defence and Christian
Answer/ which contained a powerful and worthy vindication
of Luther's popular tracts. Albert Diirer also, the famous
painter, took a deep interest in Luther's evangelical doctrine,
and revered him as a man inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Among the number of theologians who ranked next to
Erasmus, the well-known John Oecolampadius, then a
preacher at Augsburg, and almost of the same age as
Luther, came forward in his support, towards the end
of 1519, with a pamphlet directed against Eck. Erasmus
himself in 1518, at least in a private letter to Luther's
friend Lange at Erfurt, of which the latter we may be sure
did not leave Luther in ignorance, declared that Luther's
theses were bound to commend themselves to all good men,
almost without exception ; that the present Pap.il domina-
tion was a plague to Christendom ; the only question was
whether tearing open the wound would do any good, and
whether it was not conceivable that the matter could be
carried through without an actual rupture.

Luther, on his part, approached Eeuchlin and Erasmus
by letter. To the former he wrote, at the urgent entreaty
of Melancthon, in December 1518, to the latter in the
following March. Both letters are couched in the refined
language befitting these learned men, and particularly
Erasmus, and contain warm expressions of respect and
deference, though in a tone of perfect dignity, and free
from the hyperboles to which Erasmus was usually treated
by his common admirers. At the same time Luther was
careful indeed to conceal the other and less favourable side
of his estimate of Erasmus, which he had already formed
in his own mind and expressed to his friends. We can see
how bent he was, notwithstanding, upon a closer intimacy
with that distinguished man.

Eeuchlin, then an old man, would have nothing to do
with Luther and the questions he had raised. He even

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 173

wwyw^ v:'^^^y^y

Fig. 19. — W. Pirkheimee. (From a Portrait by Albert Durer.)

174 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

sought to alienate his nephew Melancthon from him, by
bidding him abstain from so perilous an enterprise.

Erasmus replied with characteristic evasion. He had
not yet read Luther's writings, but he advised everyone to
read them before crying them down to the people. He
himself believed that more was to be gained by quietness
and moderation than by violence, and he felt bound to
warn him in the spirit of Christ against all intemperate and
passionate language ; but he did not wish to admonish
Luther what to do, but only to continue steadfastly what he
was doing already. The chief thought to which he gives
expression is the earnest hope that the movement kindled
by Luther's writings would not give occasion to opponents
to accuse and suppress the ' noble arts and letters.' A
regard for these, which indeed were the object of his own
high calling, was always of paramount importance in his
eyes. Not content with attacking by means of ridicule the
abuses in the Church, Erasmus took a genuine interest in
the improvement of its general condition, and in the eleva-
tion and refinement of moral and religious life, as well as of
theological science ; and the high esteem he enjoyed made
him an influential man among even the superior clergy and
the princes of the Church. But from the first he recognised,
as he says in his letter to Lange, and possibly better than
Luther himself, the difficulties and dangers of attacking
the Church system on the points selected by Luther. And
when Luther boldly anticipated the disturbances which the
Word must cause in the world, and dwelt on Christ's saying
that He had come to bring a sword, Erasmus shrank back
in terror at the thought oi tumult and destruction. Con-
formably with the whole bent of his natural disposition and
character, he adhered anxiously to the peaceful course of
his work and the pursuit of his. intellectual pleasures.
Questions involving deep principles, such as those of the
Divine right of the Papacy, the absolute character of
Church authority, or the freedom of Christian judgment, as

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 175

founded on the Bible, he regarded from aloof; notwith-
standing that silence or concealment towards either party,
when once these principles were publicly put in question,
was bound to be construed as a denial of the truth.

We shall see how this same standpoint, from which this
learned man still retained his inward sympathy with Church
matters, dictated further his attitude towards Luther and
the Eeformation. For the present, Luther had to thank
the good opinion of Erasmus, cautiously expressed though
it was, for a great advancement of his cause. It was
valuable to Luther in regard to those who had no personal
knowledge of him, as giving them conclusive proof that his
character and conduct were irreproachable. His influence
is apparent in the answer of the Archbishop Albert to
Luther, in its tone of gracious reticence, and its remarks
about needless contention. Erasmus had written some
time before to the Archbishop, contrasting the excesses
charged against Luther with those of the Papal party, and
denouncing the corruptions of the Church, and particularly
the lack of preachers of the gospel. Much to the annoy-
ance of Erasmus, this letter was published, and it worked
more in Luther's favour than he wished.

Those hopes which Luther had placed in the young
students at Erfurt were shortly fulfilled by the so-called
' poets ' beginning now to read and expound the New
Testament. The theology, which, in its Scholastic and
monastic form, they regarded with contempt, attracted
them as knowledge of the Divine Word. Justus Jonas,
Luther's junior by ten years, a friend of Eoban Hess, and
one of the most talented of the circle of young ' poets,'
now exchanged for theology the study of the law, which I13
had already begun to teach. To his respect for Erasmus
was now added an enthusiastic admiration for Luther, the
courageous Erfurt champion of this new evangelical
doctrine. A close intimacy sprang up between Jonas and
Luther, as also between Jonas and Luther's friend Lange.

176 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Erasmus had persuaded him to take up theology ; Luther,
on hearing of it in 1520, congratulated him on taking
refuge from the stormy sea of law in the asylum of the
Scriptures.

None of the old Erfurt students, however, had culti-
vated Luther's friendship more zealously than Crotus, his
former companion at that university ; and this even from
Italy, where his sympathies with Luther had been stirred
by the news from Germany, and where he had learned to
realise, from the evidence of his eyes, the full extent of the
scandals and evils against which Luther was waging war.
He, who in the ' Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum,' had failed
to exhibit in his satire the solemn earnestness which recom-
mended itself to Luther's taste and judgment, now openly
declared his concurrence with Luther's fundamental ideas
of religion and theology, and his high appreciation of Scrip-
ture and of the Scriptural doctrine of salvation. He wrote
repeatedly to him, reminding him of their days together at
Erfurt, telling him about the ' Plague-chair ' at Eome, and
the intrigues carried on there by Eck, and encouraging him
to persevere in his work. Expressions common to the ' poets '
of his university days were curiously mingled in his letters
with others of a religious kind. He would like to glorify,
as a father of their fatherland, worthy of a golden statue
and an annual festival, his friend Martin, who had been the
first to venture to liberate the people of God, and show
them the way to true piety. Not only from Italy, but also
after his return, he employed his characteristic literary
activity, by means of anonymous pamphlets, in the service
of Luther. It was he who, towards the end of 1519, sent
from Italy to Luther and Melancthon at Wittenberg, the
Humanist theologian, John Hess, afterwards the reformer
of the Church at Breslau. Crotus himself returned in the
spring of 1520 to Germany,

Here these Humanist friends of the Lutheran movement
had already been joined by Crotus' personal friend, Ulrich

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 17?

von Hutten, who not only could wield his pen with more
vigour and acuteness than almost all his associates, but who
declared himself ready to take up the sword for the cause

\rlchwnWutte\u

Fig. 20.— Ulrich von Hutten. (From an old woodcut.)

he defended, and to call in powerful allies of his own class
to the fight. He sprang from an old Franconian family,
the heirs, not indeed of much wealth or property, but of an
old knightly spirit of independence. Hatred of monasticism

N

178 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

and all that belonged to it, must have been nursed by him
from youth; for having been placed, when a boy, in a
convent, he ran away with the aid of Crotus, when only
sixteen. Sharing the literary tastes of his friend, he learned
to write with proficiency the poetical and rhetorical Latin of
the Humanists of that time. In spite of all his irregularities,
adventures, and unsettlement of habits, he had preserved
an elastic and elevated turn of mind, desirous of serving
the interests of a ' free and noble learning,' and a knightly
courage, which urged him to the fight with a frankness
and straightforwardness not often found among his fellow-
Humanists. Whilst laughing at Luther's controversy as a
petty monkish quarrel, he himself dealt a heavy blow to the
traditional pretensions of the Papacy by the republication of
a work by the famous Italian Humanist Laurentius Valla,
long since dead, on the pretended donation of Constantine,
in which the writer exposed the forgery of the edict pur-
porting to grant the possession of Eome, Italy, and indeed
the entire Western world to the Roman see. This work
Hutten actually dedicated to Pope Leo himself. But what
distinguishod this knight and Humanist above all the others
who were contending on behalf of learning and against the
oppressions and usurpations of the Church and monasticism,
were his thoroughly German sympathies, and his zeal for
the honour and independence of his nation. He saw her
enslaved in ecclesiastical bondage to the Papal see, and at
the mercy of the avarice and caprice of Eome. He heard
with indignation how scornfully the ' rough and simple
Germans ' were spoken of in Italy, how even on German
soil the Eoman emissaries openly paraded their arrogance,
how some Germans, unworthy of the name, pandered to
such scorn and contempt by a cringing servility which
made them crouch before the Papal chair and sue for
favour and office. He warned them to prepare for a mighty
outburst of German liberty, already well-nigh strangled by
Eome. At the same time he denounced the vices of his

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 179

own countrymen, particularly that of drunkenness, and
the proneness to luxury and usurious dealing in trade and
commerce, all of which, as we have seen, had been com-
plained of by Luther. Nor less than of the honour of
Germany herself, was he jealous of the honour and power
of the Empire. In all that he did he was guided, perhaps
involuntarily, but in a special degree, by the principles and
interests of knighthood. His order was indebted to the
Empire for its chief support, although the imperial authority
no less than that of his own class, had sunk in a great
measure through the increasing power of the different
princes. In the prosperous middle class of Germany he
saw the spirit of trade prevailing to an excess, with its
attendant evils. In the firmly- settled regulations of law
and order, which had been established in Germany with
great trouble at the end of the middle ages, he felt most
out of his element : he longed rather to resort to the old
method of force whenever he saw justice trampled on. And
in this respect also Hutten proved true to the traditions of
knighthood.

But in the material power required to give effect to
his ideas of reform in the kindred spheres of politics and
of the Church in her external aspect, Hutten was entirely
wanting. More than this, we fail to find in him any clear
and positive plans or projects of reform, nor any such calm
and searching insight into the relations and problems before
him as was indispensable for that object. His call, how-
ever rousing and stirring it was, died away in the distance
of time and the dimness of uncertainty.

Hutten found, however, an active and powerful friend,
and one versed in war and politics, in Francis von Sickingen,
the ' knight of manly, noble, and courageous spirit,' as an
old chronicler describes him. He was the owner of fine
estates, among them the strong castles of Landstuhl near
Kaiserslautern, and Ebernburg near Kreuznach, and had
already, in a number of battles conducted on his own

n2

180 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

account and to redress the wrongs of others, given ample
proof of his energy and skill in raising hosts of rustic
soldiery, and leading them with reckless valour, in pursuit
of his objects, to the fray. Hutten won him over to support
the cause of Eeuchlin, still entangled in a prosecution by
his old accusers of heresy, Hoogstraten and the Dominicans
at Cologne. A sentence of the Bishop of Spires, rejecting the
charges of his opponents, and mulcting them in the costs oi
the suit, had been annulled, at their instance, by the Pope
Against them and against the Dominican Order in particular,
Sickingen now declared his open enmity, and his sympathy
with the ' good old doctor Eeuchlin.' In spite of delay
and resistance, they were forced to pay the sum demanded.
Meanwhile, no doubt under the influence of his friend
Crotus, Hutten's eyes were opened about the monk Luther.
During a visit in January 1520 to Sickingen at his castle of
Landstuhl, he consulted with him as to the help to be given
to the man now threatened with excommunication, and
Sickingen offered him his protection. Hutten at the same
time proceeded to launch the most violent controversial
diatribes and satires against Eome ; one in particular,
called ' The Eoman Trinity,' wherein he detailed in striking
triplets the long series of Eomish pretensions, trickeries,
and vexatious abuses. At Easter he held a personal inter-
view at Bamberg with Crotus, on his return from Italy.

For the furtherance of their objects and desires, in
respect to the affairs of Germany and the Church these
two knights placed high hopes in the new young Emperor,
who had left Spain, and on the 1st of July landed
on the coast of the Netherlands. Sickingen had earned
merit in his election. He had hoped to find in him
a truly German Emperor, in contrast to King Francis
of France, who was a competitor for the imperial crown.
The Pope, as we have seen, had opposed his election ; his
chief advocate, on the contrary, was Luther's friend, the
Elector Frederick. Support was also looked for from

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 181

Charles' brother Ferdinand, as being a friend of arts and
letters. Hutten even hoped to obtain a place at his court.
On this side, therefore, and from these quarters, Luther
was offered a friendly hand.

FMNCISCV£*VON\SICKINGEN -**■

Fig. 21.— Francis von Sickingen. (From an old engraving.)

We hear Hutten first mentioned by Luther in February
1520, in connection with his edition of the work of Valla.
This work, though published two years before, had been

1 82 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

made known to Luther then, for the first time, by a friend.
It had awakened his keenest interest ; the falsehoods ex-
posed in its pages confirmed him in his opinion that the
Pope was the real Antichrist.

Shortly after, a letter from Hutten reached Melancthon,
containing Sickingen's offer of assistance ; a similar com-
munication forwarded to him some weeks before, had never
reached its destination. Sickingen had charged Hutten
to write to Luther, but Hutten was cautious enough
to make Melancthon the medium, in order not to let
his dealings with Luther be known. Sickingen, he wrote,
invited Luther, if menaced with danger, to stay with him,
and was willing to do what he could for him. Hutten added
that Sickingen might be able to do as much for Luther as
he had done for Keuchlin ; but Melancthon would see for
himself what Sickingen had then written to the monks.
He spoke, with an air of mystery, of negotiations of the
highest importance between Sickingen and himself; he
hoped it would fare badly with the Barbarians, that is, the
enemies of learning, — and all those who sought to bring
them under the Eomish yoke. With such objects in view, he
had hopes even of Ferdinand's support. Crotus, meanwhile,
after his interview with Hutten at Bamberg, advised Luther
not to despise the kindness A Sickingen, the great leader
of the German nobility. It was rumoured that Luther, if
driven from Wittenberg, would take refuge among the
Bohemians. Crotus earnestly warned him against doing so.
His enemies, he said, might force him to do so, knowing, as
they did, how hateful the name of Bohemian was in Ger-
many. Hutten himself wrote also to Luther, encouraging
him, in pious Scriptural language, to stand firm and perse-
vere in working with him for the liberation of their father-
land. He repeated to him the invitation of N., (he did not
mention his name,) and assured him that the latter would
defend him with vigour against his enemies of every kind.

Another invitation, at the same time, and of the same

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 183

purport, came to Luther from the knight Silvester von
Schauenburg. He too had heard that Luther was going to
the Bohemians. He was willing, however, to protect him
from his enemies, as were also a hundred other nobles whom
with God's he]p he would bring with him, until his cause
was decided in a right and Christian manner.

Whether Luther really entertained the thought of flying
to Bohemia, we cannot determine with certainty. But we
know with what seriousness, as early as the autumn of 1518,
after he had refused to retract to the Papal legate, he
anticipated the duty and necessity of leaving Wittenberg.
How much more forcibly must the thoughts have re-
curred to him, when the news arrived of the impending
decision at Borne, of the warning received from there by
the Elector, and of the protest uttered even in Germany,
and by such a prince as Duke George of Saxony, against
any further toleration of his proceedings. The refuge which
Luther had previously looked for at Paris was no longer
to be hoped for. Since the Leipzig disputation he had
advanced in his doctrines, and especially in his avowed
support of Huss, far beyond what the university of Paris
either liked or would endure.

Such then was Luther's position when he received these
invitations. They must have stirred him as distinct mes-
sages from above. The letters in which he replied to them
have not been preserved to us. We hear, however, that
he wrote to Hutten, saying that he placed greater hopes
in Sickingen than in any prince under heaven. Schauen-
burg and Sickingen, he says, had freed him from the fear of
man ; he would now have to withstand the rage of demons.
He wished that even the Pope would note the fact that he
could now find protection from all his thunderbolts, not
indeed in Bohemia, but in the very heart of Germany ; and
that, under this protection, he could break loose against the
Bomanists in a very different fashion to what he could now
do in his official position.

1 84 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

As he reviewed, in the course of the contest, the proceed-
ings of his enemies, and was further informed of the conduct
of the Papal see, the picture of corruption and utter worth-
lessness, nay the antichristian character of the Church
system at Eome, unfolded itself more and more painfully
and fully before his eyes. The richest materials for this
conclusion he found in the pamphlets of the writers already
referred to, and in the descriptions sent from Italy by mer
like Hess and others, who shared his own convictions.

All this time, moreover, Luther's feelings as a German
were more and more stirred within him, while thinking of
what German Christianity in particular was compelled to
suffer at the hands of Eome. A lively consciousness of this
had been awakened in his mind smce he Diet of Augsburg
in 1518, with its protest against the claims of the Papacy,
its statement of the grievances of the German nation, and
the vigorous writings on that subject which were circulated
at that time. He referred in 1519 to that Diet, as having
drawn a distinction between the Romish Church and the
Eomish Curia, and repudiated the latter with its demands.
As for the Eomanists, who made the two identical, they
looked on a German as a simple fool, a lubberhead, a dolt, a
barbarian, a beast, and yet they laughed at him for letting
himself be fleeced and pulled by the nose. Luther's words
were now re-echoed in louder tones by Hutten, whose own
wish, moreover, was to incite his fellow-countrymen, as
such, to rise and betake themselves to battle.

There were certain of the laity who had already brought
these German grievances in Church matters before the Diets
and who now gave vent in pamphlets to their denunciations
of the corruption and tyranny of the Eomish Church. As for
Luther, he valued the judgment of a Christian layman, who
had the Bible on his side, as highly, and higher, than that
of a priest and prince of the Church, and ascribed the true
character of a priest to all Christians alike : these Estates
of the Augsburg Diet he speaks of as ' lay theologians.'

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 185

Leading laymen of the nobility now came forward and
offered to assist him in his labours on behalf of the German
Church. Both he and Melancthon placed their confidence
also gladly in the new German Emperor.

Several letters of Luther at this time, closely following
on each other, express at once the keenest enthusiasm for
the contest, and the idea of a Reformation proceeding from
the laity, represented, as he understood them, by their
established authorities and Estates.

We find in these letters powerful effusions of holy zeal
and language full of Christian instruction, mingled with
the most vehement outbursts of the natural passion which
was boiling in Luther's breast. Compared with them, the
cleverest controversial writings of the Humanists, and even
the fiercest satires of Hutten, sound only like rhetoric and
elaborate displays of wit.

Luther, in his Sermon on Good Works, already noticed
as so replete with wholesome doctrine and advice, had
already complained that God's ministry was perverted into
a means of supporting the lowest creatures of the Pope,
and had declared that the best and only thing left was
for kings, princes, nobles, towns, and parishes to set to
work themselves, and ' make a breach in the abuse,' so
that the hitherto intimidated clergy might follow. As for
excommunication and threats, such things need not trouble
them : they meant as little as if a mad father were to
threaten his son who was guarding him.

The sharpest replies on the part of Luther were next
provoked by two writings which justified and glorified the
Divine authority and power of the Papacy. One was by
a Franciscan friar, Augustin von Alveld ; the other by
Silvester Prierias, already mentioned, who was his most
active opponent in this matter.

Luther broke out against ' the Alveld Ass ' (as he called
him in a letter to Spalatin) in a long reply entitled ' The
Popedom at Rome,' with the object of exposing once and

' 1 86 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

finally the secrets of Antichrist. ' From Bome ' he says
' flow all evil examples of spiritual and temporal iniquity
into the world, as from a sea of wickedness. Whoever
mourns to see it, is called by the Komans a ' good Christian,'
or in their language, a fool. It was a proverb among them
that one ought to wheedle the gold out of the German
simpletons as much as one could.' If the German princes
and nobles did not 'make short work of them in good
earnest,' Germany would either.be devastated or would have
to devour herself.

Prierias' pamphlet provoked him to exclaim, in that
same letter to Spalatin, ' I think that at Rome they are all
mad, silly, and raging, and have become mere fools, sticks
and stones, hells and devils.' His remarks on this
pamphlet, written in Latin, contain the strongest words
that we have yet heard from his lips about the ' only means
left,' and the ' short work ' to be made of Rome. Em-
perors, kings, and princes, he says, would yet have to take
up the sword against the rage and plague of the Romanists.
' When we hang thieves, and behead murderers, and burn
heretics, why do not we lay hands on these Cardinals and
Popes and all the rabble of the Romish Sodom, and bathe
our hands in their blood ? ' What Luther now in reality
wished to see done, was, as he goes on to say, that the
Pope should be corrected as Christ commands men to deal
with their offending brethren (St. Matth. xviii. 15 sqq.), and,
if he neglected to hear, should be held as an heathen man
and a publican.

While these pages of Luther's were in the press, towards
the middle of June, Hutten, full of hope himself, and
carrying with him the hopes of Luther and Melancthon,
set off on his journey to the Emperor's brother in the
Netherlands, and, on his way, paid a visit at Cologne to the
learned Agrippa von Nettesheim, accompanied, as the latter
says, by a ' few adherents of the Lutheran party.' There,
as Agrippa relates with terror, they expressed aloud their

ALLIANCE WITH HUMANISTS AND NOBILITY. 187

thoughts. * What have we to do with Eome and its Bishop ? '
they asked. ' Have we no Archbishops and Bishops in
Germany, that we must kiss the feet of this one? Let
Germany turn, and turn she will, to her own bishops and
pastors.' Hutten paid the expenses of this journey out of
money given him by the Archbishop Albert ; between these
two, therefore, the bonds of friendship were not yet broken.
Albert was the first of the German bishops ; Hutten, and
very possibly the Archbishop also, might reasonably sup-
pose that a reform proceeding from the Emperor and the
Empire, might place him at the head of a German National
Church .

But Luther had already put his pen to a composition
which was to summon the German laity to the grand work
before them, to establish the foundations of Christian
belief, and to set forth in full the most crying needs and
aims of the time. He had resolved to give the strongest
and amplest expression in his power to the truth for which
he was contending.

1 88 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

CHAPTEE VII.

luther's works to the christian nobility of the
german nation, and on the babylonian captivity.

In a dedication to his friend and colleague Amsdorf,
prefixed to the first of these works, he begins, ' The time of
silence is past, and the time for speaking is come.' He had
several points, he tells us, concerning the improvement of
the Christian condition, to lay before the Christian nobility
of Germany ; perhaps God would help His Church through
the laity, since the clergy had become entirely careless. If
charged with presumption in venturing to address such
high people on such great matters, so be it, then perhaps
he was guilty of a folly towards his God and the world,
and might one day become court-jester. But inasmuch as
he was a sworn doctor of Holy Scripture, he rejoiced in the
opportunity of satisfying his oath in this manner.

He then turns to the ' Most illustrious, Most powerful
Imperial Majesty, and to the Christian nobility of the
German nation,' with the greeting, ' Grace and strength
from God first of all, most illustrious, gracious, and beloved
Lords ! '

The need and troubles of Christendom, and especially
of Germany, constrained him, as he said, to cry to God
that He might inspire some one to stretch out his hand to
the suffering nation. His hopes were in the noble young
blood now given by God as her head. He would likewise
do his part.

The Romanists, in order to prevent their being reformed,

CRISIS OF SECESSION. 189

had shut themselves within three walls. Firstly, they said,
the temporal power had no rights over them, the spiritual
power, but the spiritual was above the temporal ; secondly,
the Scriptures, which were sought to be employed against
them, could only be expounded by the Pope ; thirdly, no
one but the Pope could summon a Council. Against this,
Luther calls to God for one of those trumpets which once
blew down the walls of Jericho, in order to blow down also
these walls of straw and paper.

His assault upon the first wall was decisive 'for the rest.
He accomplished it with his doctrine of the spiritual and
priestly character of all Christians, who had been baptised
and consecrated by the blood of Christ (1 Peter ii. 9 ;
Eev. v. 10). Thus, according to Luther, they are all of
one character, one rank. The only thing peculiar to the
so-called ecclesiastics or priests, is the special office or work
of ' administering the Word of God and the Sacraments '
to the congregation. The power to do this is given, indeed,
by God to all Christians as priests, but, being so given,
cannot be assumed by an individual without the will and
command of the community. The ordination of priests, as
they are called, by a bishop can in reality only signify
that, out of the collective body of Christians, all possessing
equal power, one is selected, and commanded to exercise
this power on behalf of the rest. They hold, therefore, this
peculiar office, like their fellow-members of the community
who are entrusted with temporal authority, namely, to wield
the sword for the punishment of the bad and the protection
of the good. They hold it, as every shoemaker, smith, or
builder holds office in his particular trade, and yet all alike
are priests. Moreover, this temporal magisterial power has
the right to exercise its office free and unhindered in its
own sphere of action ; no Pope or bishop must here inter-
fere, no so-called priest must usurp it.

As a consequence of this spiritual character of Chris-
tians, the second wall was also doomed to fall. Christ

i9o THE BREACH WITH ROME.

said of all Christians, that they shall all be taught of
God (St. John vi. 45). Thus any man, however humble,
if he was a true Christian, could have a right under-
standing of the Scriptures ; and the Pope, if wicked and
not a true Christian, was not taught of God. If the Pope
alone were always in the right, one would have to pray
' T believe in the Pope at Kome,' and the whole Christian
Church would then be centred in one man, which would
be nothing short of devilish and hellish error. After
this the third wall fell by itself. For, says Luther, when
the Pope acts against the Scriptures, it is our duty to stand
by the Scriptures and to punish him as Christ taught us to
punish offending brethren (St. Matthew xviii. 17), when He
said, ' Tell it unto the Church.' Now the Church or Chris-
tendom must be gathered together in a Council. And like
as the most famous of the Councils, that of Nice, and others
after it, had been summoned by the Emperor, so must every-
one, as a true member of the whole body, and when
necessary, do what he can to make it a really free Council :
' which nobody can do so well as the temporal authorities,
who meet these as fellow-Christians, fellow-priests.' Just
as if a fire broke out in a city, no one, because he had
not the power of the burgomaster, durst stand still and
let it burn, but every citizen must run and call others to-
gether, so was it in the spiritual city of Christ, if a fire of
trouble and affliction should arise. The question as to the
composition of such a Council Luther does not proceed to
discuss. That he wished, however, the laity to be repre-
sented, we may safely assume from the whole context, though
it is doubtful how far he may then have thought of a repre-
sentation of the temporal authorities as such, and, above
all, of the Christian body collectively, through its political
members. But the main point on which he insisted was,
that the Council should be a free and really Christian one,
bound by no oath to the Pope, fettered by no so-called Canon
law, but subject only to the Word of God in Holy Writ.

CRISIS OF SECESSION. 191

Under twenty- six heads Luther then proceeds to enume-
rate the points on which such a Council should treat, and
which should be urged in particular in connection with the
question of reform.

The whole arrogance of the Papacy, the temporal pride
with which the Pope clothed himself, the idolatry with which
he was treated, were to Luther a scandal and unchristian.
Lord of the universe, the Pope styled himself, and paraded
about with a triple crown in all temporal splendour, and
with an endless train of followers and baggage, whilst claim-
ing to be the vicegerent of the Lord who wandered about
in poverty, and gave Himself up to the Cross, and declared
that His kingdom was not of this world. Clearly and fully
Luther shows the various ways, embracing the whole life of
the Church, in which Eomish tyranny had enslaved the
Churches of other countries, especially of Germany, and
had turned them to account and plundered them : by means
of fees and taxes of all kinds, by drawing away the trial of
ecclesiastical cases to Eome, by accumulating benefices in
the hands of Papal favourites of the worst description, by
the unprincipled and usurious sale of dispensations, by
the oath which made the bishops mere vassals of the Pope,
and effectually prevented all reform. In this greed for
money in particular, and in the crafty methods of collecting
it, Luther saw the genuine Antichrist, who, as Daniel had
foretold, was to gather the treasures of the earth (Daniel
xi. 8, 39, 43).

To confront this oppression and these acts of usurpa-
tion, Luther would not have men wait for a Council. As
for these impositions and taxes, he says that every prince,
noble, and town should straightway repudiate and forbid
them. This lawless pillaging of ecclesiastical benefices and
fiefs by Rome should be resisted at once by the nobility.
Anyone coming from the Papal court to Germany with such
claims, must be ordered to desist, or to jump into the nearest
piece of water with his seals and letters and the ban of ex-

1 92 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

communication. Luther insists especially on demanding,
as Hutten had already demanded, that the individual
Churches, and particularly those of Germany, should order
and conduct their own affairs independently of Rome.
The bishops were not to obtain their confirmation at
Rome, but, as already decreed by the Nicene Council, from
a couple of neighbouring bishops or an archbishop. The
German bishops were to be under their own primate, who
might hold a general consistory with chancellors and coun-
sellors, to receive appeals from the whole of Germany. The
Pope, in other respects, was still to be left a position of
supremacy in the collective Christian Church, and the ad-
judication of matters of importance on which the primates
could not agree. One other matter Luther dwells on, as
affecting the entire constitution of the Church. It is not
the mere administrative and judicial functions that consti-
tute the true meaning of office, whether in a priest, a bishop,
or a Pope, but a constant service to God's "Word. Luther
therefore is anxious that the Pope should not be burdened
with small matters. He calls to mind how once the Apostles
would not leave the Word of God, and serve tables, but
wished to give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of
the Word (Acts vi. 2, 4). But he would have a clean sweep
made of the so-called ecclesiastical law, contained in the
law-books of the Church. The Scriptures were sufficient.
Besides, the Pope himself did not keep that law, but pre-
tended to carry all law in the shrine of his own heart.

Consistently with all that he has said about the relative
positions of the temporal and spiritual powers, Luther goes
on to protest, on behalf especially of the German Empire,
against the ' overbearing and criminal behaviour ' of the
Pope, who arrogates to himself power over the Emperor,
and allows the latter to kiss his foot and hold his stirrup.
Granted that he is superior to the Emperor in spiritual
office, in preaching, in administering the Word of grace ; in
other matters he is his inferior.

CRISIS OF SECESSION 193

But the most important demand advanced by Luther,
while pushing further his inquiries into the moral and social
regulations and condition of the Church, is the abolition of
the celibacy of the clergy. If Popes and bishops wish to
impose upon themselves the burden of an unmarried life,
he has nothing to say to that. He speaks only of the clergy
in general, whom God has appointed, who are needed by
every Christian community for the service of preaching and
the sacraments, and who must live and keep house amongst
their fellow- Christians. Not an angel from Heaven, much
less a Pope, dare bind this man to what God has never
bound him, and thereby precipitate him into danger and
sin. A limit at least must be imposed on monastic life.
Luther would like to see the convents and cloisters turned
into Christian schools, where men might learn the Scriptures
and discipline, and be trained to govern others and to preach.
He would further give full liberty to quit such institutions
at pleasure. He reverts to the question of clerical celibacy,
in lamenting the gross immoralities of the priesthood, and
complaining that marriage was so frequently avoided on
account simply of the responsibilities it entailed, and the
restraints it imposed on loose living.

Luther would abolish all commands to fast, on the
ground that these ordinances of man are opposed to the
freedom of the Bible. He would do away also with the
multitude of festivals and holidays, as leading only to idle-
ness, carousing, and gambling. He would check the foolish
pilgrimages to Piome, on which so much money was wasted,
whilst wife and child, and poor Christian neighbours were
left at home to starve, and which drew people into so much
trouble and temptation. As regards the management of
the poor, Luther's requirements were somewhat stringent.
All begging among Christians was to be forbidden ; each
town was to provide for its own poor, and not admit strange
beggars. As the universities at that time, no less than the
schools, were in connection with the Church, Luther offers

0

194

THE BREACH WITH ROME.

some suggestions for their reform. He singles out the
writings of the ancients which were read in the philosophical
faculty, and others, which might be done away with as use-
less or even pernicious. With regard to the mass of civil
law, he agreed with the complaint often heard among
Germans, that it had become a wilderness : each state
should be governed, as far as possible, ' by its own brief laws.'
For children, girls as well as boys, he would like to see a
school in every town. It grieved him to see how, in the
very heart of Christendom, the young folk were neglected
and allowed to perish for lack of timely sustenance with the
bread of the gospel.

He reverts again to the question about the Bohemians,
with a view to silencing at length the vile calumniations of
his enemies. And in so doing he remarks of Huss, that
even if he had been a heretic, ' heretics must be conquered
with the pen and not with fire. If to conquer them with
fire were an art, the executioners would be the most learned
doctors on the earth.'

Lastly he refers briefly to the prevalent evils of worldly
and social life ; to wit, the luxury in dress and food, the
habits of excess common among Germans, the practice of
usury and taking interest. He would like to put a bridle
into the mouth of the great commercial firms, especially
the rich house of Fugger ; for the amassing of such
enormous wealth, during the life of one man, could never
be done by right and godly means. It seemed to him ' far
more godly to promote agriculture and lessen commerce.'
Luther speaks in this as a man of the people, who were
already suspicious about this accumulation of money, from
a right feeling really of the moral and economical dangers
thence accruing to the nation, even if ignorant of the
necessary relations of supply and demand. As to this,
Luther adds : ' I leave that to the worldly-wise ; I, as a
theologian, can only say, Abstain from all appearance of
evil.' (1 Thessalonians v. 22.)

CRISIS OF SECESSION.

195

So wide a field of subjects did this little book embrace.
We have only here mentioned the chief points. Luther
himself acknowledges at the conclusion : ' I am well aware
that I have pitched my note high, that I have proposed
many things which will be looked upon as impossible, and
have attacked many points too sharply. I am bound to add,
that if I could, I would not only talk but act ; I would
rather the world were angry with me than God.' But
Rome always remained the chief object of his attacks.
' Well then,' he says of her, ' I know of another little song
of Rome ; if her ear itches for it, I will sing it to her and
pitch the notes at their highest.' He concludes, ' God give
us all a Christian understanding, and to the Christian
nobility of the German nation, especially, a true spiritual
courage to do their best for the poor Church. Amen.'

Whilst Luther was working on this treatise, new dis-
quieting rumours and remonstrances addressed from Rome
to the Elector reached him through Spalatin. But with
them came also that promise of protection from Schauen-
burg. Luther answered Spalatin, ' The die is cast, I
despise alike the wrath and the favour of Rome ; I will
have no reconciliation with her, no fellowship.' Friends
who heard of his new work grew alarmed ; Staupitz, even at
tiae eleventh hour, tried to dissuade him from it. But be-
fore August was far advanced, four thousand copies were
already printed and published. A new edition was imme-
diately called for. Luther now added another section
repudiating the arrogant pretension of the Pope, that
through his means the Roman Empire had been brought
to Germany.

Well might Luther's friend Lange call this treatise a

war-trumpet. The Reformer, who at first merely wished

to point out and open to men the right way of salvation,

and to fight for it with the sword of his word, now stepped

forward boldly and with determination, demanding the

abolition of all unlawful and unchristian ordinances of

o2

196 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the Romish Church, and calling upon the temporal powei
to assist him, if need be, with material force. The ground-
work of this resolve had been laid, as we have seen, in
the progress of his moral and religious convictions ; in
the inalienable rights which belong to Christianity in
general, and the mission with which God entrusts also the
temporal power or state ; in the independence granted by
Him to this power on its own domain, and the duties He
has imposed upon all Christian authorities, even in regard
to all moral and religious needs and dangers. But he denied
altogether, and we may well believe him, that he had any
wish to create disorder or disturbance ; his intention was
merely to prepare the way for a free Council. Not indeed
that he shrank from the thought of battle and tumult,
should the powers whom he invoked meet with resistance
from the adherents of Rome or Antichrist. As for himself,
though forced to make such a stormy appearance, he had
no idea of himself being destined to become the Reformer,
but was content rather to prepare the way for a greater
man, and his thoughts herein turned to Melancthon.
Thus he wrote to Lange these remarkable words : ' It may
be that I am the forerunner of Philip, and like Elias,
prepare the way for him in spirit and in strength, destroy-
ing the people of Ahab' (1 Kings xviii). Melancthon, on
the other hand, wrote to Lange just then about Luther,
saying that he did not venture to check the spirit of Martin
in this matter, to which Providence seemed to have appointed
him.

From the Electoral court Luther learned that his
treatise was ' not altogether displeasing.' And just at this
time he had to thank his prince for a present of game.

There is no doubt that Luther received also from that
quarter the advice to approach the Emperor, who had just
arrived in Germany, and whom he had wished to address
in his treatise, with a direct personal request for protection,
to prevent his being condemned unheard. He addressed

CRISIS OF SECESSION.

197

to him a well-considered letter, couched in dignified Ian-
He issued at the same time a short public ' offer,'

guage.

Fig. 22.— Title-page of the second edition of this Treatise,
in a rather smaller size.

appealing therein to the fact, that he had so long begged in
vain for a proper refutation. These two writings were first

198 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

examined and corrected by Spalatin, and so appeared only ai
the end of August, not, as is generally supposed, in the
January of this year. Luther never received an answer to
his letter to the Emperor, and therefore never heard how it
was received.

The dangers which threatened Luther, and through
him also the honour and prosperity of his Order, affected
further his companions and friends who belonged to it.
And of this Miltitz took advantage to renew his attempts at
mediation. He induced the brethren, at a convention of
Augustinian friars held at Eisleben, to persuade Luther once
more to write to the Pope, and solemnly assure him that
he had never wished to attack him personally. A deputa-
tion of these monks, with Staupitz and Link at then head,
came to Luther at Wittenberg on the 4th or 5th of Sep
tember, and received his promise to comply with their
wishes. At this convention, Staupitz, who felt his strength
no longer equal to the difficult questions and controversies
of the time, had resigned his office as Vicar of the Order,
and Link had succeeded him. Luther saw him now at
Wittenberg for the last time. He retired in quiet seclusion
to Salzburg, where the Archbishop was his personal friend.

But Luther's spirit would not let him desist for a moment
from prosecuting his contest with Eome. He had yet ' a
little song ' to sing about her. He was in fact at work in
August, while rumours were already afloat that Eck was on
his way with the bull, upon a new tract, and had even begun
to have it printed. It was to treat of the 'Babylonian
Captivity of the Church,' taking as its subject the Christian
sacraments. Luther knew that in this he cut deeper into
the theological and religious principles of the Church, which
had come under discussion in his quarrel with Rome, than
in all his demands for reform, put forward in his address
to the nobility. For while, in common with the Church
herself, he saw in the Sacraments, instituted by Christ,
the most sacred acts of worship, and the channels through

CRISIS OF SECESSION, 199

which salvation itself, forgiveness, grace, and strength are
imparted from above, in those principles he saw them limited
by man's caprice in their original scope and meaning,
robbed of their true significance, and made the instruments of
Papal and priestly domination, while other pretended sacra-
ments were joined to them, never instituted by Christ. On
this account he complained of the tyranny to which these
sacraments, and with them the Church, were subject, of the
captivity in which they lay. Against him were arrayed not
only the hierarchy, but the whole forces of Scholastic learn-
ing. He knew that what he now propounded would sound
preposterous to these opponents ; he would make, he said,
his feeble revilers feel their blood run cold. But he met;
them in the armour of profound erudition, and with learned
arguments lucidly and concisely expressed in Latin. At
the same time his language, where he explains the real
essence of the sacraments, shows a clearness and religious
fervour which no layman could fail to understand.

The subject of the deepest importance to Luther in this
treatise was the sacrament of the altar. He dwells on the
mutilated form, without the cup, in which the Lord's Supper
was given to the laity ; on the doctrine invented about the
change of the bread, instead of keeping to the simple word of
Scripture ; and, lastly, on the substitution of a sacrifice, sup-
posed to be offered to God by the priest, for the institution
ordained by Christ for the nourishment of the faithful.
The withholding of the cup he calls an act of ungodliness
and tyranny, beyond the power of either Pope or Council to
prescribe. Against the sacrifice of the mass he had pub-
lished just before a sermon in German. He was well aware
that his principles involved, as indeed he intended, a
revolution of the whole service, and an attack on an
ordinance, upon which a number of other abuses, of
great importance to the hierarchy, depended. But he
ventured it, because God's word obliged him to do it. So
now he proceeds to describe, in contrast to this mass, the

200 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

one of true Christian institution, and resting wholly, as he
conceived it, on the words of Christ, when instituting the
Last Supper, ' Take, and eat,' etc. Christ would here say,
* See, thou poor sinner, out of pure love I promise to thee,
before thou canst either earn or promise anything, forgiveness
of all thy sins, and eternal life, and to assure thee of this
I give here my Body and shed my Blood ; do thou, by my
death, rest assured of this promise, and take as a sign my
Body and my Blood.'

For the worthy celebration of this mass, nothing is re-
quired but faith, which shall trust securely in this promise ;
with this faith will come the sweetest stirrings of the heart,
which will unfold itself in love, and yearn for the good
Saviour, and in Him will become a new creature.

As regards baptism Luther lamented that it was no longer
allowed to possess the true significance and value it ought to
have for a man's whole life. Whereas in truth the person
baptized received a promise of mercy from God, to which
time after time, even from the sins of his future life, he might
and was bound to turn, it was taught, that in sinning after
baptism, the Christian was like a shipwrecked man, who,
instead of the ship, could only reach a plank ; this being the
sacrament of penance, with its accompanying outward for-
malities. Whereas further, in true baptism he had vowed
to dedicate his whole life and conduct to God, other vows of
human invention were now demanded of him. Whereas he
then became a full partaker of Christian liberty, he was now
burdened with ordinances of the Church, devised by man.

Concerning this sacrament of penance, with confession,
absolution, and its other adjuncts, Luther rates at its full
value the word of forgiveness spoken to the individual, and
values also the free confession made to his Christian brother
by the Christian seeking comfort. But confession, he said,
had been perverted into an institution of compulsion and
torture. Instead of leading the tempted brother to trust
in God's mercy, he was ordered to perform acts of penance.-

CXISSS OF SECESSION. 201

whereby nominally to give satisfaction to God, but in reality
to minister to the ambition and insatiable avarice of the
Roman see.

From all these abuses and perversions Luther seeks
to liberate the sacraments, and restore them in their
purity to Christians. Nevertheless, he takes care to insist
on the fact that it is not the mere external ceremony,
the act of the priest in administering, and the visible par-
taking of the receiver, that make the latter a sharer in the
promised grace and blessedness. This, he says, depends
upon a hearty faith in the Divine promise. He who believes
enjoys the benefit of the sacrament, even though its outward
administration be denied him.

The mediaeval Church ordained four other sacraments,
namely, confirmation, marriage, consecration of priests,
and extreme unction. But Luther refuses to acknow-
ledge any of these as a sacrament. Marriage, he says, in
its sacramental aspect, was not an institution of the New
Testament, nor was it connected with any especial pro-
mise of grace. It was but a holy moral ordinance of daily
life, existing since the beginning of the world and among
those who were not Christians as well as those who were. At
the same time he takes the opportunity to protest against
those human regulations with which even this ordinance had
been invaded by the Eomish Church, especially against the
arbitrary obstacles to marriage she had created. Even these
were made a source of revenue to her, by the granting of
dispensations. For the other three sacraments there was no
especial promise. In the Epistle of St. James (v. 14), where
it speaks of anointing the sick with oil, the allusion is not to
extreme unction to the dying, but to the exercise of that won-
derful Apostolic gift of healing the sick through the power of
faith and prayer. With regard to the consecration of priests,
Luther repeats the principles laid down in his address to
the nobility. Ordination consists simply of this, that out
of a community, all of whom are priests, one is chosen for

202 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the particular work of administering God's word. If, as
in consecration, the hand is laid upon him, this is a
human custom and not instituted by the Lord Himself.
But in truth, says Luther, the outrageous tyranny of the
clergy, with their priestly bodily anointing, their tonsure,
and their dress, would arrogate a higher position than other
Christians anointed with the Spirit; these are counted
almost as unworthy as dogs to belong to the Church.
And most seriously he warns a man not to strive for that
outward anointing, unless he is earnestly intent on the true
service of the gospel, and has disclaimed all pretension to
become, by consecration, better than lay Christians.

In conclusion Luther declares : he hears that Papal ex-
communication is prepared for him, to force him to recant.
In that case this little treatise shall form part of his re-
cantation. After that he will soon publish the rest, the like
of which has never been seen or heard by the Komish see.

In the beginning of October, probably on the 6th of
that month, the book was issued. Luther had heard some
ten days before that Eck had actually arrived with the
bull. He had already caused it to be posted publicly at
Meissen on September 21. Early in October he sent a
copy of it also to the university of Wittenberg.

203

CHAPTEE VIII.

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION, AND LUTHER* S REPLY,

At Borne, the bull, now newly arrived in Germany, had been
published as early as June 16. It had been considered,
when at length, under the pressure of the influences de-
scribed above, the subject was taken up in earnest, very
carefully in the Papal consistory. The jurists there wer j
of opinion that Luther should be cited once more, but
their views did not prevail. As for the negotiations, coil
ducted through Miltitz, for an examination of Luther befor t
the Archbishop of Treves, no heed was now paid to the
affair.

The bull begins with the words, ' Arise, 0 Lord, and
avenge Thy cause.' It proceeds to invoke St. Peter, St.
Paul, the whole body of the saints, and the Church. A
wild boar had broken into the vineyard of the Lord, a wild
beast was there seeking to devour &c. Of the heresy against
which it was directed, the Pope, as he states, had additional
reason to complain, since the Germans, among whom it
had broken out, had always been regarded by him with
such tender affection : he gives them to understand that
they owed the Empire to the Eomish Church. Forty-one
propositions from Luther's writings are then rejected and
condemned, as heretical or at least scandalous and corrupt-
ing, and his works collectively are sentenced to be burnt.
As to Luther himself, the Pope calls God to witness that he
has neglected no means of fatherly love to bring him into
the right way. Even now he is ready to follow towards
him the example of Divine mercy which wills not the death

304 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live ; and
so once more he calls upon him to repent, in which case he
will receive him graciously like the prodigal son. Sixty
days are given him to recant. But if he and his adherents
will not repent, they are to be regarded as obstinate heretics
and withered branches of the vine of Christ, and must be
punished according to law. No doubt . the punishment of
burning was meant ; the bull in fact expressly condemns
the proposition of Luther which denounces the burning of
heretics.

All this was called then at Eome, and has been called
even latterly by the Papal party, ' the tone rather of fatherly
sorrow than of penal severity.' The means by which the
bull had been brought about, made it fitting that Eck him-
self should be commissioned with its circulation throughout
Germany, and especially with its publication in Saxony.
More than this, he received the unheard of permission to
denounce any of the adherents of Luther at his pleasure,
when he published the bull.

Accordingly, Eck had the bull publicly posted up in
September at Meissen, Merseburg, and Brandenburg. He
was charged, moreover, by a Papal brief, in the event of
Luther's refusing to submit, to call upon the temporal
power to punish the heretic. But at Leipzig, where the
magistrate, by order of Luke George, had to present him
with a goblet full of money, he was so hustled in the streets
by his indignant opponents, that he was forced to take refuge
in the Convent of St. Paul, and hastened to pursue his
journey by night, whilst the city officials rode about the
neighbourhood with the bull. A number of Wittenberg stu-
dents, adds Miltitz, made their appearance also at Leipzig,
who ' behaved in a good-for-nothing way towards him.'

At Wittenberg, where the publication of the bull rested
with the university, the latter notified its arrival to the
Elector, and objected for various reasons to publish it,
alleging, in particular, that Eck, its sender, was not fur-

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 205

nished with proper authority from the Pope. Luther now
for the first time felt himself, as he wrote to Spalatin, really
free, being at length convinced that the Popedom was
Antichrist and the seat of Satan. He was not at all dis-
couraged by a letter sent at this time by Erasmus from
Holland to Wittenberg, saying that no hopes could be placed
in the Emperor Charles, as he was in the hands of the
Mendicant Friars. As for the bull, so extraordinary were
its contents, that he wished to consider it a forgery.

Still the promise which Luther had given to his Augus-
tinian brethren, only a few weeks before, under pressure
from Miltitz, remained as yet unfulfilled. Nor did Miltitz
himself wish the threads of the web then spun to slip from
his fingers. Even at this hour, with the consent and at
the wish of the Elector, an interview had been arranged
between Miltitz and Luther at the Castle of Lichtenberg
(now Lichtenburg, in the district of Torgau), where the
monks of St. Antony were then housed. Just as Miltitz, as
we have seen, had thought to be able to avert the bull by
getting Luther to write a letter to the Pope, so now he pro-
mised the Elector still to conciliate the Pope by that means.
Only the letter was to be dated back to the time, before the
publication of the bull, when Luther first gave his consent
to write it. Its substance was to be as then agreed upon ;
Luther, as Miltitz expressed it, was to ' eulogise the Pope per-
sonally in a manner agreeable to him,' and at the same time
submit to him an historical statement of what he had done.
Luther consented to publish a letter in these terms, in Latin
and German, under date of September 6, and immediately
gave effect to his promise.

It is hardly conceivable how Miltitz could still have nur-
tured such a hope. Neither his wish to ingratiate himself
with the Elector Frederick, and to checkmate the plans of
Eck whom he detested, nor his personal vanity and flippancy
of character, are sufficient to account for it. He must
have learnt from his own previous personal intercourse with

206 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the Pope, and his experiences of the Papal court, that Leo
did not take up Church questions and controversies so
gravely and so seriously as not to remain fully open all the
time to influences and considerations of other kinds, and
that around him were parties and influential personages,
arrayed in mutual hostility and rivalry. He must have been
strangely ignorant of the state of things at Piome. But as
to Luther and his cause there was no longer any hesitation
in that quarter.

In what sense Luther himself was willing to comply with
the demand of Miltitz, the contents of his letter suffice to
show. He makes it clear that nothing was further from his
intention than to appease the angry Pontiff by any dexterous
artifices or concealments. The assurance required from
him, that he had no wish to attack the Pope personally, he
construes in its literal terms, apart altogether from the official
character and acts of Leo. And in fact against his personal
character and conduct he had never said a word. But he
takes this opportunity, at the same time, of speaking to
him plainly, as a Christian is bound to do to his fellow -
Christian; of repeating to him, face to face, the severest
charges yet made by him against the Bomish chair ; of ex-
cusing Leo's own conduct in this chair simply and solely on
the ground that he regarded him as a victim of the monstrous
corruption which surrounded him, and of warning him once
more against it as a brother. He tells him to his face that
he himself, the Holy Father, must .acknowledge that the
Papal see was more wicked and shameful than any Sodom,
Gomorrah, or Babylon ; that God's wrath had fallen upon
it without ceasing ; that Borne, which had once been the
gate of heaven, was now an open jaw of hell. Most earnestly
he warns Leo against his flatterers, — the ' ear-ticklers ' who
would make him a God. He assures him that he wishes him
all that is good, and therefore he wishes that he should not
be devoured by these jaws cf hell, but on the contrary,
should be freed from this godless idolatry of parasites, and

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION.

207

be placed in a position where he would be able to live on some
smaller ecclesiastical preferment, or on his own patrimony.
As for the historical retrospect which Miltitz wanted, and

Fig. 23.— Title-page, slightly reduced, of the original Tract ' On the Liberty
of a Christian Man.' The Saxon swords are represented above, and
the arms of Wittenberg below.

which Luther briefly appends to this letter, all that the latter
says in vindication of himself is, that it was not his own
fault, but that of his enemies, who had driven him further

2o8 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

and further onward, that ' no small part of the unchristian
doings at Rome had been dragged to light.'

Luther sent with this letter, as a present to the Pope, a
pamphlet entitled ' On the Liberty of a Christian Man.' This
is no controversial treatise intended for the great struggle of
churchmen and theologians, but a tract to minister to ' simple
men.' For their benefit he wished to describe compen-
diously the ' sum of a Christian life ' ; to deal thoroughly
with the question, ' What was a Christian ? and how he was
to use the liberty which Christ had won and given to him.'

He premises as an axiom that a Christian is a free lord
over all things, and subject to nobody. He considers, first
of all, the new, inner, spiritual man, and asks what makes
him a good and free Christian. Nothing external, he says,
can make him either good or free. It does not profit the soul
if the body puts on sacred vestments, or fasts, or prays with
the lips. To make the soul live, and be good and free, there
is nothing else in heaven or on earth but the Holy Scriptures,
in other words, God's Word of comfort by His dear Son
Jesus Christ, through Whom our sins are forgiven us. In
this Word the soul has perfect joy, happiness, peace, light,
and all good things in abundance. And to obtain this,
nothing more is required of the soul than what is told us in
the Scriptures, namely, to give itself to Jesus with firm faith
and to trust joyfully in Him. At first, no doubt, God's com-
mand must terrify a man, seeing that it must be fulfilled, or
man condemned ; but when once he has been brought
thereby to recognise his own worthlessness, then comes
God's promise and the gospel, and says, Have faith in
Christ, in Whom I promise thee all grace ; believe in Him,
and thou hast Him. A right faith so blends the son! with
God's word, that the virtues of the latter become her own,
as the iron becomes glowing hot from its union with the
fire. And the soul becomes joined to Christ as a bride to the
bridegroom ; her wedding-ring is faith. All that Christ, the
rich and noble bridegroom possesses, He makes His bride's ;

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 209

all that she has, He takes unto Himself. He takes upon
Himself her sins, so that they are swallowed up in Him and
in His unconquerable righteousness. Thus the Christian is
exalted above all things, and becomes a lord ; for nothing
can injure his salvation ; everything must be subject to him
and help towards his salvation ; it is a spiritual kingdom.
And thus all Christians are priests ; they can all approach
God through Christ, and pray for others. ' Who can com-
prehend the honour and dignity of a Christian ? Through
his kingship he has power over all things, through his
priesthood he has power over God, for God does what he
desires and prays for.'

But the Christian, as Luther states in his second axiom,
is not only this new inner man. He has another will in
his flesh, which would make him captive to sin. Accord-
ingly, he dare not be idle, but must work hard to drive out
evil lusts and mortify his body. He lives, moreover, among
other men on earth, and must labour together with them.
And as Christ, though Himself full of the Kingdom of God,
for our sake stripped Himself of His power and ministered
as a servant, so should we Christians, to whom God through
Christ has given the Kingdom of all goodness and blessed-
ness, and therewith all that is sufficient to satisfy us, do freely
and cheerfully for our heavenly Father whatever pleases
Him, and do unto our neighbours as Christ has done for us.
In particular, we must not despise the weakness and weak
faith of our neighbour, nor vex him with the use of our
liberty, but rather minister with all we have to his improve-
ment. Thus the Christian, who is a free lord and master,
becomes a useful servant of all and subject to all. But he
does these works, not that he may become thereby good and
blessed in the sight of God ; he is already blessed through his
faith, and what he does now he does freely and gratuitously.
Luther thus sums up in conclusion : ' A Christian lives
not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbour ; in Christ
through faith, in his neighbour through love. Through faith

p

210 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

he rises above himself in God, from God he descends again
below himself through love ; and yet remains always in God
and in godlike love.'

This tract was a remarkable pendant to Luther's re-
markable letter to the Pope. His Holiness, so he wrote to
him in his dedication, might taste from its contents what
kind of occupation the author would rather, and might
with more profit, be engaged in, if only the godless Papal
flatterers did not hinder him. And in fact the Pope could
plainly see from it how Luther lived and laboured, with
his inmost being, in these profound but simple ideas cf
Christian truth, and how he was inwardly compelled and
delighted to represent them in their noble simplicity.
The whole tone and tenor of this dedication, so tranquil,
fervent, and tender, shows further what profound peace
reigned in the soul of this vehement champion of the faith,
and what happiness the excommunicated heretic found
in his God. Next to Luther's Address to the German
Nobility and his Babylonian Captivity, this tract is one of
the most important contributions of his pen to the cause of
the Reformation. It is clear from its pages that when
Luther wrote his letter, at the request of Miltitz, to th*
Pope, he had no thought of making peace with the Papac}',
or of even a moment's truce in the campaign.

The bull of excommunication he met in the manner
intimated to Spalatin from the first. He launched a short
tract against it, ' On the new Bull and Falsehoods of Eck,'
treating it as Eck's forgery. This he followed up with
another tract in German and Latin, ' Against the Bull of
Antichrist.' He was resolved to unmask the blindness and
wickedness of the Eoman evil-doers. He saw partly his
own real doctrines perverted, partly the Christian and
Scriptural truth that his doctrines contained, stigmatised as
heresy and condemned. He declared that if the Pope did
not retract and condemn this bull, no one would doubt that
he was the enemy of God and the disturber of Christianity.

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 211

He then solemnly renewed, on November 17, the appeal to
a Council, which he had made two years before. But how
was his attitude changed since then ! He, the accused and
condemned heretic, now himself proclaims condemnation
and ruin to his enemy, the antichristian power that seeks to
domineer the world. Nor is it only from a future Council,
and one constituted as the previous great assemblies of the
Church, that he expects and demands protection for himself
and the Christian truth ; again and again he calls upon the
Christian laity to assist him. Thus in his appeal now
published, he invites the Emperor Charles, the Electors and
Princes of the Empire, the counts, barons, and nobles, the
town councils, and all Christian authorities throughout
Germany, to support him and his appeal, that so the true
Christian belief and the freedom of a Council might be
saved. Similarly, in the Latin edition of his tract against the
bull, he calls upon the Emperor Charles, on Christian kings
and princes and all who believe in Christ, together with
all Christian bishops and learned doctors, to resist the
iniquities of the Popedom. In his German version he
defends himself against the charge of stirring up the laity
against the Pope and priesthood ; but he asks if, indeed,
the laity will be reconciled, or the Pope excused, by the
command to burn the truth. The Pope himself, he says,
and his bishops, priests, and monks are wrestling to their
own downfall, through this iniquitous bull, and want to
bring upon themselves the hatred of the laity. ' What
wonder were it, should princes, nobles, and laymen beat
them on the head, and hunt them out of the country ? '

Hutten now followed with a stormy demand for a general
rising of Germany against the tyranny of Ptome, whose
hirelings and emissaries were to be chased away by main
force. When two papal legates, Aleander and Caraccioli,
appeared on the Ehine to execute the bull and work upon
the Emperor in person, he was anxious to strike a blow at
them on his own account, little good as, on calm reflection,

p2

212 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

it was evident could have come of it. Luther, on hearing
of it, could not refrain remarking in a letter to Spalatin,
' If only he had caught them ! '

Luther however persisted in repeating to himself and his
friends the warning of the Psalmist, ' Put not your trust in
princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them.'
Nay, when Spalatin, who had gone with the Elector to the
Emperor, told him how little was to be hoped for from the
latter, he expressed to him his joy at finding that he too had
learned the same lesson. God, he said, would never have
entrusted simple fishermen with the Gospel, if it had needed
worldly potentates to propagate it. It was to the Last Day
that he looked wTith full confidence for the overthrow of Anti-
christ. And, indeed, his idea that Antichrist had long
reigned at Home wras connected in his mind with the belief
that the Last Day was close at hand. Of this, as he wrote
to Spalatin, he was convinced, and for many strong reasons.

And in fact the Emperor Charles, before leaving the
Netherlands, on his journey to Aix-la-Chapelle to be crowned,
had already been induced by Aleander to take his first step
against Luther. He had consented to the execution of the
sentence in the bull, condemning Luther's works to be
burnt, and had issued orders to that effect throughout
the Netherlands. They were burnt in public at Lou vain,
Cologne, and Mayence. At Cologne this was done wrhile he
was staying there. It was in this town that the two legates
approached the Elector Frederick with the demand to have
the same done in his territory, and to execute due punish-
ment on the heretic himself, or at least to keep him close
prisoner, or deliver him over l j the Pope. Frederick however
refused, saying that Luther must first be heard by impartial
judges. Erasmus also, who was then staying at Cologne,
expressed himself to the same effect, in an opinion obtained
from him by Frederick through Spalatin. At an interview
with the Elector he said to him, ' Luther has committed two
great faults ; he has touched the Pope on his crown and the

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 213

monks on their bellies.' The Archbishop of Mayence, Cardinal
Albert, received directions from the Pope to take more deci-
sive and energetic steps against Hutten as well. The burning
of Luther's books at Mayence was effected without hindrance,
though Hutten was able to inform Luther that, according
to the account received from a friend, Aleander narrowly
escaped stoning, and the multitude were all the more in-
flamed in favour of Luther. The legates in triumph pro-
ceeded to carry out their mission elsewhere

Luther, however, lost no time in following up their
execution of the bull with his reply. On December 10 he
posted a public announcement that the next morning, at
nine o'clock, the antichristian decretals, that is, the Papal
law-books, would be burnt, and he invited all the Wittenberg
students to attend. He chose for this purpose a spot in
front of the Elster Gate, to the east of the town, near the
Augustinian convent. A multitude poured forth to the
scene. With Luther appeared a number of other doctors and
masters, and among them Melancthon and Carlstadi. Ai Lei-
one of the masters of arts had built up a pile, Luther laid the
decretals upon it, and the former applied the fire. Luther
then threw the Papal bull into the flames, with the words
1 Because thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord,1 let the
everlasting fire consume thee.' Whilst Luther with the other
teachers returned to the town, some hundreds of students
remained upon the scene, and sang a Te Deum, and a
Dirge for the decretals. After the ten o'clock meal, some of
the young students, grotesquely attired, drove through the
town in a large carriage, with a banner emblazoned with
a bull four yards in length, amidst the blowing of brass
trumpets and other absurdities. They collected from all
quarters a mass of Scholastic and Papal writings, and
especially those of Eck, and hastened with them and the

1 It is obvious that he refers to Christ, who is spoken of in Scripture as
the Holy One of God (St. Mirk i. 24, Acts ii. '27), not, as ignorance and
malice have suggested, to himself.

214 PRE BREACH WITH ROME.

bull, to the pile, which their companions had meanwhile
kept alight. Another Te Deum was then sung, with a
requiem, and the hymn ' 0 du armer Judas.'

Luther at his lecture the next day told his hearers with
great earnestness and emotion what he had done. The
Papal chair he said, would yet have to be burnt. Unless
with all their hearts they abjured the Kingdom of the Pope,
they could not obtain salvation.

He next announced and justified his act in a short treatise
entitled ' Why the Books of the Pope and his disciples were
burnt by Dr. Martin Luther.' ' I, Martin Luther,' he says,
* doctor of Holy Scripture, an Augustinian of Wittenberg,
make known hereby to everyone, that by my wish, advice,
and act, on Monday after St. Nicholas' day, in the year 1520,
the books of the Pope of Eome, and of some of his disciples,
were burnt. If anyone wonders, as I fully expect they will,
and asks for what reason and by whose command I did it,
let this be his answer.' Luther considers it his bounden duty,
as a baptized Christian, a sworn doctor of Holy Scripture,
and a daily preacher, to root out, on account of his office, all
unchristian doctrines. The example ol others, on whom the
same duty devolved, but who shrank from doing as he did,
would not deter him. 'I should not,' he says, 'be excused
in my own sight ; of that my conscience is assured, and my
spirit, by God's grace, has been roused to the necessary
courage.' He then proceeds to cite from the law-books thirty
erroneous doctrines, in glorification of the Papacy, which de-
served to be burnt. The sum total of this Canon law was as
follows : * The Pope is a God on earth, above all things,
heavenly and earthly, spiritual and temporal, and every-
thing is his, since no one durst say, What doest thou ? ' This,
says Luther, is the abomination of desolation (St. Matth.
xxiv. 15), or mother words Antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 4).

Simultaneously with this, he set out in a longer and
exhaustive work the 'ground and reason' of all his own
articles which had been condemned by the bull. He takes

TnE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 215

his stand upon God's word in Scripture against the dog-
mas of the earthly God ; — upon the revelation by God
Himself, which, to everyone who studies it deeply and with
devotion, will lighten his understanding, and make clear its
substance and meaning. What though, as he is reminded,
he is only a solitary, humble man, he is sure of this, that
God's Word is with him.

To Staupitz, who felt faint-hearted and 'desponding
about the bull, Luther wrote, saying that, when burning
it, he trembled at first and prayed ; but now he felt more
rejoiced than at any other act in all his life. He now released
himself finally from the restraints of those monastic rules,
with which, as we have remarked before, he had always tor-
mented himself, besides performing the higher duties of his
calling. He was freed now, as he wrote to his friend Lange,
by the authority of the bull, from the commands of his Order
and of the Pope, being now an excommunicated man. Of this
he was glad ; he retained merely the garb and lodging of a
monk : he had more than enough of real duties to perform
with his daily lectures and sermons, with his constant
writings, educational, edifying, and polemical, and with his
letters, discourses, and the assistance he was able to give
his brethren.

By this bold act, Luther consummated his final rupture
with the Papal system, which for centuries had dominated
the Christian world, and had identified itself with Chris-
tianity. The news of it must also have made the fire which
his words had kindled throughout Germany, blaze out in all
its violence. He saw now, as he wrote to Staupitz, a storm
raging, such as only the Last Day could allay ; so fiercely
were passions aroused on both sides.

Germany was then, in fact, in a state of excitement and
tension more critical than at any other period of her history.
Side by side with Luther stood Hutten, hi the forefront of
the battle with Eome. The bull he published with sarcastic
comments : the burning of Luther's works of devotion he

216 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

denounced in Latin and German verses. Eberlin von
Giinzburg, who shortly after began to wield his pen as a
popular writer on reform, called these two men * two chosen
messengers of God.' A German Litany, which appeared
early in 1521, implored God's grace and help for Martin
Luther, the unshaken pillar of the Christian faith, and for
the brave German knight Ulrieh Hutten, his Pylades.

Hutten'also wrote now in German for the German
people, both in prose and verse. During his stay with
Sickingen in the winter at his Castle of Ebernburg, he read
to him Luther's works, which roused in this powerful warrior
an active sympathy with the doctrines of the Keformation,
and stirred up projects in his mind, o* what his own strong
arm could accomplish for the good cause.

Pamphlets, both anonymous and pseudonymous, were
circulated in increasing numbers among the people. They
took the form chiefly of dialogues, in which laymen, in a
simple Christian spirit, and with their natural under-
standing, complain of the needs of Christendom, ask ques-
tions and are enlightened. The outward evils of the Papal
system are put clearly before the people: — the scandals
among the priesthood and in the convents, the iniquities of
the Eomish courtiers and creatures of the Pope, who pandered
with menial subservience to the magnates at Eome, in order
to fatten on German benefices, and reap their harvest of taxes
and extortions of every kind. The simple Word of God, with
its sublime evangelical truths, must be freed from the sophis-
tries woven round it by man, and be made accessible to all
without distinction. Luther is represented as its foremost
champion, and a true man of the people, whose testimony
penetrated to the heart. His portrait, as painted by
Cranach, was circulated together with his small tracts. In
later editions the Holy Ghost appears in the form of a
dove hovering above his head ; his enemies spread the
calumny, that Luther intended this emblem to represent
himself.

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 217

Satirical pictures also were used as weapons on both
sides in this contest. Cranach pourtrayed the meek and
suffering Saviour on one side, and on the other the arrogant
Eoman Antichrist, in the twenty-six woodcuts of his ' Passion
of Christ and Antichrist : ' Luther added short texts to these
pictures.

Luther's enemies now began, on their side, to write in
German and for the people. The most talented among
them, as regards vigorous, popular German and coarse
satire, was the Franciscan Thomas Murner ; but his
theology seemed to Luther so weak, that he only favoured
him once with a brief allusion. He entered now into a
longer literary duel with the Dresden theologian Emser,
who had challenged him after the disputation at Leipzig,
and who now published a work ' Against the Unchristian
Address of Martin Luther to the German Nobility.' Luther
replied with a tract ' To the Goat at Leipzig,' Emser with
another ' To the Bull at Wittenberg,' Luther with another
* On the Answer of the Goat at Leipzig,' and Emser with
a third, ' On the furious Answer of the Bull at Wittenberg.'
Luther, whose reply to Emser's original work had been
directed to the first sheets that appeared, met the work,
when published in its complete form, with his ' Answer to
the over-Christian, over-priestly, over-artful Book of the
Goat Emser.' Emser followed up with a ' Quadruplica,' to
which Luther rejoined with another treatise entitled ' A
Refutation by Doctor Luther of Emser's error, extorted by the
most learned priest of God, H. Emser.' When later, during
Luther's residence at the Wartburg, Emser published a
reply, Luther let him have the last word. Nothing new
was contributed to the great struggle by this interchange of
polemics. The most effective point made by Emser and
the other defenders of the old Church system, was the old
charge that Luther, one man, presumed to oppose the whole
of Christendom as hitherto constituted, and by the over-
throw of all foundations and authorities of the Church,

218 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

to bring unbelief, distraction, and disturbance upon Church
and State. Thus Emser says once in German doggrel,
that Luther imagined that

What Church and Fathers teach was nought ;
None lived but Luther ; — so he thought.

In threatening Luther with the consequences of his
heresy, he never failed to hold up Huss as a bugbear.

In Germany, as Emser complains, there was already
' such quarrelling, noise, and uproar, that not a district,
town, village, or house was free from partisans, and one
man was against another.' Aleander wrote to Kome saying
that everywhere exasperation and excitement prevailed, and
the Papal bull was laughed at. Among the adherents
of the old Church system one heard rumours of strange
and terrible import. A letter written shortly after the
burning of the bull, gave out that Luther reckoned on
thirty-five thousand Bohemians, and as many Saxons
and other North Germans, who were ready, like the Goths
and Yandals of old, to march on Italy and Rome. But
it was evident, even at this stage, that from rancorous
words to energetic and self-sacrificing action was a long
step to take. Even in central Germany the bull was
executed without any disturbance breaking out ; and that
in the bishoprics of Meissen and Merseburg, which were
adjacent to Wittenberg. Pirkheimer and Spengler at
Nuremberg, whose names Eck had included in the bull,
now bowed to the authority of the Pope, represented though
it was by their personal enemy.

Hutten, who saw his hopes in the Emperor's brother
deceived, and believed his own liberty and even his life
was menaced by the Papal bull, burned with impatient ar-
dour to strike a blow. He was anxious also to see whether
a resort to force, after his own meaning of the term, would
meet with any support from the Elector Frederick. He
ventured even, when speaking of Sickingen's lofty mission,

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 219

to refer to the precedent of Ziska, the powerful champion of
the Hussites, who had once been the terror and abomination
of the Germans. He, a member of the proud Equestrian
order, was willing now to join hands with the towns and
the burghers to do battle with Rome for the liberty of
Germany. But, passionate as were his words, it was by no
means clear what particular end under present circumstances
he sought to achieve by means of arms. Sickingen, who
had grasped the situation in a practical spirit, advised him
to moderate his impatience, and sought, for his own part,
to keep on good terms with the Emperor, in whom Hutten
accordingly renewed his hopes. Each, in short, had over-
rated the influence which Sickingen really possessed with
the Emperor.

In this posture of affairs, Luther reverted, with increased
conviction, to his original opinion, that the future must be left
with God alone, without trusting to the help of man. Hutten
himself had written to him, during the Diet of Worms, as
follows : ' I will fight manfully with you for Christ ; but our
counsels differ in this respect, that mine are human, while
you, more perfect than I am, trust solely in those of God.'
And when Hutten seemed really bent on taking the sword,
Luther declared to him and to others, with all decision of
purpose : ' I would not have man fight with force and blood-
shed for the Gospel. By the Word has the world been sub-
dued, by the Word has the Church been preserved, by the
Word will she be restored. As Antichrist has begun without
a blow, so without a blow will Antichrist be crushed by the
Word.' Even against the Romish hirelings among the Ger-
man clergy, he would have no acts of violence committed,
such as were committed in Bohemia. He had not laboured
with the German nobility to have such men restrained by the
sword, but by advice and command. He was only afraid
that their own rage would not allow of peaceful means to
check them, but* would bring misery and disaster upon
their heads.

220 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

His expectation — not indeed ungrounded— of the ap-
proaching end of the world, to which, as we have seen, he
alluded in a letter to Spalatin on January 16, 1521, Luther
now announced more fully in a book, written in answer to
an attack by the Romish theologian Ambrosius Catharinus.
He based his opinion on the prophecies of the Old and New
Testament, on which Christian men and Christian commu-
nities, sore pressed in the battle with the powers of darkness,
had been wont ere then to rely, in the sure hope of the ap-
proaching victory of God. Luther referred in particular to
the vision of Daniel (chap, viii.), where he states that after
the four great Kingdoms of the World, the last of which
Luther takes to be the Roman Empire, a bold and crafty
ruler should rise up, and ' by his policy should cause craft
to prosper in his hand, and should stand up against the
Prince of princes, but should be broken without hand.' He
saw this vision fulfilled in the Popedom ; which must, there-
fore, be destroyed ' without hand,' or outward force. St.
Paul, in his view, said the same in the passage in which
(2 Thess. ii.) he foreshadowed long before the Roman Anti-
christ. That ' man of sin ' who set himself up as God in the
temple of God, ' the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.'
So, said Luther, the Pope and .his kingdom would not be
destroyed by the laity, but would be reserved for a heavier
punishment until the coming of Christ. He must fall, as
he had raised himself, not ' with the hand,' but with the spirit
of Satan. The Spirit must kill the spirit ; the truth must
reveal deceit.

Luther, as we shall see, had all his life held firmly to
this belief that the end was near. As his glowing zeal
pictured the loftiest images and contrasts to his mind, so
also this assurance of victory was already before his eyes.
In his hope of the near completion of the earthly history
of Christianity and mankind, he became the instrument of
carving out a new grand chapter in its career.

THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 221

The announcement of the retractation required from
Luther by the bull, was to have been sent to Eome within
120 days. Luther had given his answer. The Pope
declared that the time of grace had expired ; and on
the 3rd of January Leo X. finally pronounced the ban
against Luther and his followers, and an interdict on the
places where they were harboured.

22i THE BREACH WiTH ROME.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DIET OF WORMS.

If we consider the powerful influences then at work to
further the ecclesiastical movement in Germany, it seems
reasonable to suppose that they would succeed in accom-
plishing its ends through the power of the Word alone,
mthout any such bloodshed and political convulsions as were
i eared ; and that Germany, therefore, though vexed with
spiritual tempests— the ' tumult and uproar ' whose out-
burst Luther already discerned— must inevitably rid herself
<£ the forms and fetters of Romish Churchdom, by the
uheev force of her new religious convictions. And, in-
deed, even in the short interval since Luther had com-
menced, and only with slow steps had advanced further
in the contest, a success had been attained which no one
;it the beginning could have ventured to expect, or even
l&ope for. Frederick the Wise, the Nestor among the great
German Princes of the Empire, had plainly freed himself
inwardly from those fetters, and though, as yet, he did not
feel himself called upon to express his sentiments by de-
cisive action, his conduct, nevertheless, could not fail to
make an impression on those about him. The nobility and
burgher class, among whom the new doctrines had made
most progress, were, politically speaking, powerfully repre-
sented at the Diets. The most important of the spiritual
lords, the Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mayence, who had
most cause to resent Luther's onslaught on indulgences,
had hitherto adopted a cautious and expectant attitude,
which left him free to join at some future time a national
revolt against his Romish sovereign. The Diets, indeed, had

THE DIET OF WORMS. 223

hitherto submitted to their old ecclesiastical grievances with-
out any fear of the wrath or scolding of the Pope. But, as
soon as the conviction prevailed among the Estates, that the
pretensions of the Roman see had no eternal, Divine founda-
tion, they could take in hand at once, on their own account,
the reformation of the Church. As for the episcopacy, in
particular, Luther had never desired, as his Address to the
Nobility sufficiently showed, to interfere with or disturb it in
any way, provided only the bishops would feed their flocks
according to God's Word. An independent German epis-
copate would then have been well able to undertake the
reforms necessary in the system of worship. Luther him-
self, as we shall see, wished and continued to wish that
those reforms' should be as few and simple as possible.

In the various German states which afterwards became
Protestant, the work of reform was in fact accomplished^
without any serious agitation, by the Princes themselves, in
concert with their Estates ; and in the free towns by the
magistrates and representatives of the burghers, notwith-
standing the fact that its opponents were supported by the
majority of the Empire and by the Emperor himself, who
was a staunch adherent of the Eomish system. How much
easier, in comparison, must the work of Evangelical refor-
mation have been, had it been resolved on by the power of
the Empire itself, in accord with the overwhelming voice of
the whole nation.

Reference was made, and in significant terms, to the
savage and cruel war of the Hussites. But no one could
deny to Luther's teaching, a clearness, a religious depth,
and a freedom from fanaticism, peculiar to itself, and
utterly wanting in the preaching of the followers of Huss.
Again, the wild Hussite wars, which were still fresh in the
sorrowful memory of the Germans, had in the first instance
been provoked by the use of force, on the part of the
Church, against the Bohemians. When Germany revolted,
Rome found no such means of force at 'her command.

224 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

It might fairly be questioned, if the thought were worth
pursuing, whether Luther at that time had sufficient ground
for looking for the triumph of his cause, not indeed to the
power of the Word and the influences then active in his
favour, but to the Day of the Lord, which he believed was
near.

It is true that in such great crises of history as this,
the final issue never depends alone on the character and
conduct of particular personages, however eminent they
may be. In this antichristian system of the Papacy,
Luther saw Satanic powers at work, which blinded the
human heart, and might indeed succeed, by dint of suffer-
ing and oppression, in overcoming for the moment the
Word of God, but which could never finally extirpate or
extinguish it. And we Protestants must confess that not
only did a great mass of the German people remain bound
by the spell of tradition, but that even to honest and
independent-minded adherents of the old system, the
interests of religion and morality might in reality have
seemed to be seriously endangered by the new teaching
and by the breach with the past. But never did the most
momentous issue in the fortunes of the German nation
and Church rest so entirely with one man as they did now
with the German Emperor. Everything depended on this,
whether he, as head of the Empire, should take the great
work in hand, or should fling his authority and might into
the opposite scale.

Charles had been welcomed in Germany as one whose
youthful heart seemed likely to respond to the newly-
awakened life and aspirations ; as the son of an old
German princely family, who by his election as Emperor
had won a triumph over the foreign king Francis, supported
though the latter was by the Pope. Piumour now alleged that
he was in the hands of the Mendicant Friars : the Francis-
can Glapio was his confessor and influential adviser, the very
man who had instigated the burning of Luther's works.

THE DIET OF WORMS.

225

He was, however, by no means so dependent on those
about him as might have been supposed. His counsellors,

progenie s dxwm< qyintvs • sic • carolv5 • ille
Imperii « caesar lvmina- lt • ora<tvlit

.AET

SVAE - XXXI

ANN * JSL « D - XXXI

m

■ ~™—

r -t— -m~r

Fig. 24.— Chables V. (From an engraving by B. Beham, in 1531.)

in the general interests of his government, pursued an inde-
pendent line of policy, and Charles himself, even in these

Q

226 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

his youthful days, knew to assert his independence as a
monarch and display his cleverness as a statesman.

But a German he was not, in spite of his grandfather
Maximilian; he had not even an ordinary knowledge of
the German language. First and foremost, he was King of
Spain and Naples; in his Spanish kingdom he retained,
even after his accession to the imperial dignity, the chief
basis of his power. His religious training and education
had familiarised him only with the strict orthodoxy of the
Church and his duties in respect to her traditional ordi-
nances. To these his conscience also constrained him
to adhere. He never showed any inclination to investi-
gate the opposite opinions of his German subjects, at least
with any independent or critical exercise of judgment. A
strict regard to his rights and duties as a sovereign was his
sole guide, next to his religious principles, in dictating his
conduct towards the Church. In Spain some reforms were
being then introduced, based essentially on the doctrines and
hierarchical constitution of the mediaeval Church. Stricter
discipline, in particular, was observed with regard to the
clergy and monks, who were admonished to attend more
faithfully to their duties of promoting the moral and
religious welfare of the people ; and the result was seen in
a revival of popular interest in the forms and ordinances o'i
religion. Furthermore, the crown enjoyed certain rights
independently of the Eoman Curia : an absolute monarchy
was here ingeniously united with Papal absolutism. Such
a union, however, sufficed in itself to make any severance
of the German Church from the Papacy impossible under
Charles V. The unity of his dominions was bound up with
the unity of the Catholic Church, to which his subjects,
alike in Spain and Germany, belonged. Added to this, he
had to consider his foreign policy. Provoked as he had been
by Leo X., who had leagued with France to prevent his
election, still, with menaces of war from France, he saw the
prudence of cultivating friendship, and contracting, if pos-

THE DIET OF WORMS. 227

sible, an alliance with the Pope. The pressure desirable
for this purpose could now be supplied by means of the
very danger with which the Papacy was threatened by the
great German heresy, and against which Eome so sorely
needed the aid of a temporal power. At the same time,
Charles was far too astute to allow his regard for the
Pope, and his desire for the unity of the Church, to
entangle his policy in measures for which his own power
was inadequate, or by which his authority might be shaken,
and possibly destroyed. Strengthened as was his monar-
chical power in Spain, in Germany he found it hemmed
in and fettered by the Estates of the Empire and the whole
contexture of political relations.

Such were the main points of view which determined
for Charles V. his conduct towards Luther and his cause.
Luther thus was at least a passive sharer in the game of
high policy, ecclesiastical and temporal, now being played,
and had to pursue his own course accordingly.

The imperial court was quickly enough acquainted with
the state of feeling in Germany. The Emperor showed
himself prudent at this juncture, and accessible to opinions
differing from his own, however small cause his proclamations
gave to the friends of Luther to hope for any positive act of
favour on his part.

Whilst Charles was on his way up the Pihine, to hold, at
the beginning of the New Year, a Diet at Worms, the Elector
Frederick approached him with the request that Luther
should at least be heard before the Emperor took any pro-
ceedings against him. The Emperor informed him in reply
that he might bring Luther for this purpose to Worms, pro-
mising that the monk should not be molested. The Elector,
however, felt doubts on this point : possibly he thought of
the danger to which Huss had been exposed at Constance.
But Luther, to whom he announced through Spalatin the
Emperor's offer, replied immediately, 'If I am summoned,
I will, so far as I am concerned, come ; even if I have to

Q2

228 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

be carried there ill ; for no man can doubt that, if the
Emperor calls me, I am called by the Lord.' Violence,
he said, would no doubt be offered him ; but God still lived,
who had delivered the three youths from the fiery furnace
at Babylon, and if it was not His will that he should be
saved, his head was of little value. There was one thing
only to beseech of God, that the Emperor might not com-
mence his reign by shedding innocent blood to shield
ungodliness : he would far rather perish by the hands of the
Romanists alone. Some time before, Luther had thought
of a place to fly to, in case it were impossible to stay at
Wittenberg ; Bohemia was always open to him. But now
he roundly declared, ' I will not fly, still less can I recant.'

Meanwhile the Emperor began to reflect whether Luther,
who lay already under the ban and interdict, ought to be
admitted to the place of the Diet. As to what proceedings
should be taken against him, if he came, long, wavering,
and anxious negotiations now took place between the
Emperor, the Estates, and the legate Aleander, at Worms,
where the Estates assembled in January, and the Diet was
opened on the 28th.

A Papal brief demanded the Emperor to enforce the
bull, by which Luther was nov; definitely condemned, by
an imperial edict. In vain, ho ^.rotoP hat? God girded him
with the sword of supreme earthly power, if he did not
use it against heretics, who vcrc even worse than infidels.
His advisers, however, were ?.^:cc<J. in the conviction that
he could not move in this matter without the consent of
his Estates. Aleander sought to gain them over in an
elaborate harangue. He, according to whose principles the
appeal to a Council was a crime, cleverly diverted from him-
self the comparison and retort which his present arguments
suggested, and insisted all the more on his complaint, that
Luther always despised the authority of Councils and would
take no correction from anyone. Glapio, then the Emperor's
confessor and diplomatist, addressed himself, with expres-

THE DIET OF WORMS. 229

sions of wonderful friendship, to Frederick's chancellor,
Briick. Even he found much that was good in Luther's
writings, hut the contents of * his book, the ' Babylonian
Captivity,' were detestable. All that need be done was that
Luther should disclaim or retract that offensive work, so
that what was good in his writings might bear fruit for the
Church, and Luther, together with the Emperor, might
co-operate in the work of true reform. He might be invited
to meet some learned, impartial men at a suitable place,
and submit himself to their judgment. This, at all events,
would be a happy means of preventing his having to appear
before the Emperor' and the Estates of the Empire, and if
he persisted in refusing to recant, of deciding then and
there his fate. We must leave it an open question, how far
Glapio still seriously thought it possible, by dint of threats
and entreaties, to utilise Luther for effecting a reform in
the Spanish sense, and as an instrument against any Pope
who should prove hostile to the Emperor. But the Elector
Frederick would undertake no responsibility in this dark
design : he refused flatly to grant to Glapio the private
audience he desired.

The Emperor acceded so far to the urgency of the Pope
as to cause a draft mandate to be laid before the Estates,
proposing that Luther should be arrested, and his protectors
punished for high treason. The Frankfort deputy wrote
home : ' The monk makes plenty of work. Some would
gladly crucify him, and I fear he will hardly escape them ;
only they must take care that he does not rise again on the
third day.' After seven days' excited debate in the Diet,
in which the Elector took a prominent and lively part, an
answer to the imperial mandate was at length agreed upon,
offering for consideration ' whether, inasmuch as Luther's
preaching, doctrines, and writings had awakened among
the common people all kinds of thoughts, fancies, and
desires, any good result or advantage would accrue from
issuing the mandate alone in all its stringency, without

230 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

first having cited Luther before them and heard him.'
At the same time, his examination was to be so far
restricted, that no discussion with him should be allowed,
but simply the question put to him, ' whether or not he
intended to insist upon the writings he had published
against our holy Christian faith.' If he retracted them, he
should be heard further on other points and matters, and
dealt with in all equity upon them. If, on the contrary,
he persisted in all or any of the articles at variance with
the faith, then all the Estates of the Empire should, with-
out further disputation, adhere to and help to maintain the
faith handed down by their fathers, and the imperial edict
should then go abroad throughout the land.

The Emperor, accordingly, on March 6, issued a citation
to Luther, summoning him to Worms, to give ' information
concerning his doctrines and books.' An imperial herald
was sent to conduct him. In the event of his disobeying
the citation, or refusing to retract, the Estates declared
their consent to treat him as an open heretic.

Luther, therefore, had to renounce at once all hope of
having the truth touching his articles of faith tested fairly
at Worms by the standard of God's word in Scripture.
Spalatin indicated to him the points on which, according to
Glapio's statement, he would in any case be expected to
make a public recantation.

It remained still doubtful, however, how far those articles
would be extended, and how far the ' other points ' might be
stretched, or possibly be made the subject of further and
profitable discussion, if he submitted in respect to the former.
Glapio had made no reference to the question of the patristic
belief in the infallibility of the Pope, or his absolute power
over the Church collectively and her Councils : even the
Papal nuncio himself had not ventured to touch on these
subjects. There was room enough for the more liberal and
independent principles entertained on these points by the
members of the earlier reforming Councils, if only Luther

THE DIET OF WORMS. 231

had not disputed their authority with that of Councils alto-
gether. The ecclesiastical abuses, against which the Diet
had already remonstrated to the Pope, were just now at
Worms the subject of general and bitter complaint. The
imposts levied by Kome on ecclesiastical benefices and fiefs,
mere outward symbols of supremacy it is true, but highly
important to the Pope, swallowed up enormous sums ; while
the Empire hardly knew how to scrape together a miserable
subsidy for the newly organised government and the expenses
of justice, and men talked openly of retaining these Papal
tributes, notwithstanding all protests from Eome, for these
purposes. Even faithful adherents of the old Church system,
like Duke George of Saxony, demanded a comprehensive
reformation of the clergy, whose scandals were so destructive
of religion, and, as the best means to effect this reformation,
a General Council of the Church. Aleander had to report
to Eome, that all parties were unanimous in this desire, so
hateful to the Pope himself, and that the Germans wished
to have the Council in their own country.

Luther formed his resolve at once on the two points
required of him. He determined to obey the summons to
the Diet, and, if there unconvicted of error, to refuse the
recantation demanded.

The Emperor's citation was delivered to him on
March 26 by the imperial herald, Kaspar Sturm, who
was to accompany him to Worms. Within twenty-one days
after its receipt, Luther was to appear before the Emperor ;
he was due therefore at Worms on April 16, at the latest.

Up till now he had continued uninterruptedly his arduous
and multifarious labours, and, to use his own expression,
like Nehemiah he carried on at once the work of peace and
of war ; he built with one hand, and wielded the sword with
the other. His controversy with Catharinus he brought
quickly to a conclusion. During March he finished the
first part of his Exposition of the Gospel as read in church,
which he had undertaken, as a peaceful and edifying work, at

232 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

the request of the Elector, to whom he wrote a dedication ;
and he was now at work on a fervent and tender prac-
tical explanation of the Magnificat, which he had intended
for his devoted friend, Prince John Frederick, the son
of Duke John and nephew of the Elector Frederick. He
addressed a short letter to him on March 31, enclos-
ing the first printed sheets of this treatise ; and the next
day sent him the epilogue, addressed to his friend Link, to
his reply to Catharinus, dedicated also to Link. ' I know,'
he says here, ' and am certain, that our Lord Jesus Christ
still lives and rules. Upon this knowledge and assurance
I rely, and therefore I will not fear ten thousand Popes ;
for He Who is with us is greater than he who is in
the world.'

On the following day, April 2, the Tuesday after
Easter, he set out on his way to Worms. His friend
Amsdorf and the Pomeranian nobleman Peter Swaven, who
was then studying at Wittenberg, accompanied him. He
took with him also, according to the rules of the Order, a
brother of the Order, John Pezensteiner. The Wittenberg
magistracy provided carriages and horses.

The way led past Leipzig, through Thuringia from
Naumburg to Eisenach, then southward past Berka, Hers-
feld, Grunberg, Friedberg, Frankfort, and Oppenheim. The
herald rode on before in his coat of arms, and announced
the man whose word had everywhere so mightily stirred the
minds of people, and for whose future behaviour and fate
friend and foe were alike anxious. Everywhere people
collected to catch a glimpse of him.

On April 6 he was very solemnly received at Erfurt.
The large majority of the university there were by this time
full of enthusiasm for his cause. His friend Crotus, on
his return from Italy, had been chosen Rector. The ban of
excommunication had not been published by the university,
and had been thrown into the water by the students.
Justus Jonas was foremost in zeal ; and even Erasmus, his

THE DIET OF WORMS. 233

honoured friend, had no longer been able to restrain him.
Lange and others were active in preaching among the
people.

Jonas hastened to Weimar to meet Luther on his ap-
proach. Forty members of the university, with the Rector at
their head, went on horseback, accompanied by a number of
others on foot, to welcome him at the boundary of the town.
Luther had also a small retinue with him. Crotus expressed
to him the infinite pleasure it was to see him, the great
champion of the faith ; whereupon Luther answered, that
he did not deserve such praise, but he thanked them for
their love. The poet Eoban also stammered out, as he said
of himself, a few words ; he afterwards described the pro-
gress in a set of Latin songs.

The following day, a Sunday, Luther spent at Erfurt.
He preached there, in the church of the Augustine convent, a
sermon which has been preserved. Beginning with the words
of the Gospel of the day, ' Peace be unto you,' he spoke of
the peace which we find through Christ the Redeemer, by
faith in whom and in his work of salvation we are justified,
without any works or merit of our own ; of the freedom
with which Christians may act in faith and love ; and of
the duty of every man, who possessed this peace of God, so
to order his work and conduct, that it shall be useful not
only to himself but to his neighbour. This he said in protest
against the justification by works taught by most preachers,
against the system of Papal commands, and against the
wisdom of heathen teachers, of an Aristotle or a Plato. Of
his present personal position and the difficult path he had
now to tread, he took no thought, but only of the general
obligation he was under, whatever other men might teach ;
* I will speak the truth and must speak it ; for that reason I
am here, and take no money for it.' During the sermon a
crash was suddenly heard in the overweighted balconies of
the crowded church, the doors of which were blocked with
multitudes eager to hear him. The crowd were about to

234 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

rush out in a panic, when Luther exclaimed, ' I know thy
wiles, thou Satan,' and quieted the congregation with the
assurance that no danger threatened, it was only the devil
who was carrying on his wicked sport.

Luther also preached in the Augustine convents at Gotha
and Eisenach. At Gotha the people thought it significant
that after the sermon the devil tore off some stones from the
gable of the church.

In the inns Luther liked to refresh himself with music*
and often took up the lute.

At Eisenach, however, he was seized with an attack
of illness, and had to be bled. From Frankfort he writes
to Spalatin, who was then at Worms, that he felt since
then a degree of suffering and weakness unknown to him
before.

On the way he found a new imperial edict posted up,
which ordered all his books to be seized, as having been
condemned by the Pope and being contrary to the Christian
faith. Charles V. by this edict had given satisfaction again
to the legates, who were annoyed at Luther being summoned
to Worms. Many doubted whether Luther, after this con-
demnation of his cause by the Emperor, would venture to
present himself in person at Worms. He himself was
alarmed, but travelled on.

Meanwhile at Worms disquietude and suspense prevailed
on both sides. Hutten from the Castle of Ebernburg sent
threatening and angry letters to the Papal legates, who
became really anxious lest a blow might be struck from
that quarter. Aleander complained that Sickingen now was
king in Germany, since he could command a following
whenever and as large as he pleased. But in truth he was
in no case ready for an attack at that moment. He still
reckoned on being able, with his Church sympathies, to
remain the Emperor's friend, and was just now on the
point of taking a post of military command in his service.
Smne anxious friends of Luther's were afraid that, accord-

THE DIET OF WORMS. 235

ing to Papal law, the safe-conduct would not be observed in
the case of a condemned heretic. Spalatin himself sent
from Worms a second warning to Luther after he had left
Frankfort, intimating that he would suffer the fate of Huss.

Meanwhile Glapio, on the other side, no doubt with the
knowledge and consent of his imperial master, made one
more attempt in a very unexpected manner to influence
Luther, or at least to prevent him from going to Worms.
He went with the imperial chamberlain, Paul von Armsdorf,
to Sickingen and Hutten at the Castle of Ebernburg, spoke
of Luther as he had formerly done to Briick, in an uncon-
strained and friendly manner, and offered to hold a peace-
able interview with Luther in Sickingen' s presence.
Armsdorf at the same time earnestly dissuaded Hutten
from his attacks and threats against the legates, and made
him the offer of an imperial pension if he would desist.
Had Luther agreed to this proposal and gone to the
Ebernburg, he could not have reached Worms in time ; the
safe-conduct promised him would have been no longer
valid, and the Emperor would have been free to act against
him. Nevertheless Sickingen entered into the proposal.
The danger threatening Luther at Worms must have
appeared still greater to him, and Luther could then have
enjoyed the protection of his castle, which he had offered
him before. Martin Butzer, the theologian from Schlettstadt,
happened then to be with Sickingen ; he had already met
Luther at Heidelberg in 1518, had then learned to know
him, and had embraced his opinions. He was now com-
missioned to convey this invitation to him at Oppenheim,
which lay on Luther's road.

But Luther continued on his way. He told Butzer that
Glapio would be able to speak with him at Worms. To
Spalatin he replied, though Huss were burnt, yet the truth
was not burnt ; he would go to Worms, though there were
as many devils there as there were tiles on the roofs of the
houses.

236 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

On April 16, at ten o'clock in the morning, Luther
entered Worms. He sat in an open carriage with his three
companions from Wittenberg, clothed in his monk's habit.
He was accompanied by a large number of men on horse-
back, some of whom, like Jonas, had joined him earlier in
his journey, others, like some gentlemen belonging to the
Elector's court, had ridden out from Worms to receive him.
The imperial herald rode on before. The watchman blew a
horn from the tower of the cathedral on seeing the proces-
sion approach the gate. Thousands streamed hither to see
Luther. The gentlemen of the court escorted him into
the house of the Knights of St. John, where he lodged with
two counsellors of the Elector. As he stepped from his
carriage he said, ' God will be with me.' Aleander, writing
to Eome, said that he looked around with the eyes of a
demon.

Crowds of distinguished men, ecclesiastics and laymen,
who were anxious to know him personally, flocked daily to
see him.

On the evening of the following day he had to appear
before the Diet, which was assembled in the Bishop's palace,
the residence of the Emperor, not far from where Luther
was lodging. He was conducted thither by side streets, it
being impossible to get through the crowds assembled in the
main thoroughfare to see him. On his way into the hall
wiiere the Diet was assembled, tradition tells us how the
famous warrior, George von Frundsberg, clapped him on the
shoulder, and said : ' My poor monk ! my poor monk ! thou
art on thy way to make such a stand as I and many of
my knights have never done in our toughest battles. If
thou art sure of the justice of thy cause, then forward in
the name of God, and be of good courage— God will not
forsake thee.' The Elector had given Luther as his advo-
cate the lawyer Jerome Schurf, his Wittenberg colleague and
friend.

When at length, after waiting two hours, Luther was

THE DIET OF WORMS.

237

admitted to the Diet, Eck,1 the official of the Archbishop of
Treves, put to him simply, in the name of the Emperor,
two questions, whether he acknowledged the books (pointing

Fig. 25.— Luther. (From an engraving by Cranach, in 1521.)

to them on a bench beside him) to be his own, and next,
whether he would retract their contents or persist in them.

1 This Eck must not be confused with the other John Eck, the theo-
logian.

238 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Schurf here exclaimed, ' Let the titles of the books be
named.' Eck then read them out. Among them there were
some merely edifying writings, such as ' A Commentary
on the Lord's Prayer,' which had never been made the
subject of complaint.

Luther was not prepared for this proceeding, and
possibly the first sight of the august assembly made him
nervous. He answered in a low voice, and as if frightened,
that the books were his, but that since the question as to
their contents concerned the highest of all things, the Word
of God and the salvation of souls, he must beware of giving
a rash answer, and must therefore humbly entreat further
time for consideration.

After a short deliberation the Emperor instructed Eck
to reply that he would, out of his clemency, grant him a
respite till the next day.

So Luther had again, on April 18, a Thursday, to appear
before the Diet. Again he had to wait two hours, till six
o'clock. He stood there in the hall among the dense crowd,
talking unconstrained and cheerfully with the ambassador
of the Diet, Peutinger, his patron at Augsburg.

After he was called in, Eck began by reproaching him
for having wanted time for consideration. He then put
the second question to him in a form more befitting and
more conformable with the wishes of the members of the
Diet : ' Wilt thou defend all the books acknowledged by
thee to be thine, or recant some part ? ' Luther now
answered with firmness and modesty, in a well-considered
speech. He divided his works into three classes. In
some of them he had set forth simple evangelical truths,
professed alike by friend and foe. Those he could on no
account retract. In others he had attacked corrupt laws
and doctrines of the Papacy, which no one could deny had
miserably vexed and martyred the consciences of Christians,
and had tyrannically devoured the property of the German
nation ; if he were to retract these books, he would make

THE DIET OF WORMS. 239

himself a cloak for wickedness and tyranny. In the third
class of his books he had written against individuals, who
endeavoured to shield that tyranny, and to subvert godly
doctrine. Against these he freely confessed that he had
been more violent than was befitting. Yet even these
writings it was impossible for him to retract, without lend-
ing a hand to tyranny and godlessness. But in defence of
his books he could only say in the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, ' If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil ; but
if well, why smitest thou me ? ' If anyone could do so, let
him produce his evidence and confute him from the sacred
writings, the Old Testament and the Gospel, and he would
be the first to throw his books into the fire. And now, as
in the course of his speech he had sounded a new challenge
to the Papacy, so he concluded by an earnest warning to
Emperor and Empire, lest by endeavouring to promote
peace by a condemnation of the Divine Word, they might
rather bring a dreadful deluge of evils, and thus give an
unhappy and inauspicious beginning to the reign of the
noble young Emperor. He said not these things as if the
great personages who heard him stood in any need of his
admonitions, but because it was a duty that he owed to his
native Germany, and he could not neglect to discharge it.

Luther, like Eck, spoke in Latin, and then, by desire,
repeated his speech with equal firmness in German.
Schurf, who was standing by his side, declared afterwards
with pride, ' how Martin had made this answer with such
bravery and modest candour, with eyes upraised to Heaven,
that he and everyone was astonished.'

The princes held a short consultation after this harangue.
Then Eck, commissioned by the Emperor, sharply reproved
him for having spoken impertinently and not really answered
the question put to him. He rejected his demand that
evidence from Scripture might be brought against him, by
declaring that his heresies had already been condemned by
the Church, and in particular by the Council of Constance,

240 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

and such judgments must suffice if anything were to be
held settled in Christianity. He promised him, however,
if he would retract the offensive articles, that his other
writings should be fairly dealt with, and finally demanded
a plain answer ' without horns ' to the question, whether he
intended to adhere to all he had written, or would retract
any part of it.

To this Luther replied he would give an answer ' with
neither horns nor teeth.' Unless he were refuted by proofs
from Scripture, or by evident reason, his conscience bound
him to adhere to the Word of God which he had quoted in
his defence. Popes and Councils, as was clear, had often
erred and contradicted themselves. He could not, there-
fore, and he would not, retract anything, for it was neither
safe nor honest to act against one's conscience.

Eck exchanged only a few more words with him in
reply to his assertion that Councils had erred. 'You cannot
prove that,' said Eck. ' I will pledge myself to do it,' was
Luther's answer. Pressed and threatened by his enemy,
he concluded with the famous words : ' Here I stand, I
can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen.'

The Emperor reluctantly broke up the Diet, at about
eight o'clock in the evening. Darkness had meanwhile
come on ; the hall was lighted with torches, and the audience
were in a state of general excitement and agitation. Luther
was led out ; whereupon an uproar arose among the
Germans, who thought that he had been taken prisoner.
As he stood among the heated crowd, Duke Erich of
Brunswick sent him a silver tankard of Eimbeck beer, after
having first drank of it himself.

On reaching his lodging, 'Luther,' to use the words of
a Nuremberger present there, ' stretched out his hands, and
with a joyful countenance exclaimed, " I am through! I am
through ! " Spalatin says : ' He entered the lodging so
courageous, comforted and joyful in the Lord, that he said
before others and myself, " if he had a thousand heads, he

THE DIET OF WORMS. 241

would rather have them all cut off than make one recanta-
tion. He relates also how the Elector Frederick, before
his supper, sent for him from Luther's dwelling, took
him into his room and expressed to him his astonishment
and delight at Luther's speech. 'How excellently did
Father Martin speak both in Latin and German before
the Emperor and the Orders. He was bold enough, if not
too much so.' The Emperor, on the contrary, had been so
little impressed by Luther's personality, and had under-
stood so little of it, that he fancied the writings ascribed to
him must have been written by some one else. Many of
his Spaniards had pursued Luther, as he left the Diet, with
hisses and shouts of scorn.

Luther, by refusing thus point-blank to retract, effectually
destroyed whatever hopes of mediation or reconciliation had
been entertained by the milder and more moderate adherents
of the Church who still wished for reform. Nor was any
union possible with those who, while looking to a truly repre-
sentative Council as the best safeguard against the tyranny
of a Pope, were anxious also to obtain at such a Council a
secure and final settlement of all questions of Christian
faith and morals. It was these very Councils about which
Eck purposely called on Luther for a declaration; and
Luther's words on this point might well have been con-
sidered by the Elector as ' too bold.' Aleander, who had
used such efforts to prevent Luther's being heard, was now
well satisfied with the result. But Luther remained faithful
to himself. True it was that he had often formerly spoken
of yielding in mere externals, and of the duty of living in
love and harmony, and respecting the weaknesses of others ;
and his conduct during the elaboration of his own Church
system will show us how well he knew to accommodate
himself to the time, and, where perfection was impossible,
to be content with what was imperfect. But the question
here was not about externals, or whether a given proceeding
were judicious or not for the attainment of an object

R

242 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

admittedly good. It was a question of confessing or
denying the truth — the highest and holiest truths, as he
expressed it, relating to God and the salvation of man. In
this matter his conscience was bound.

And the trial thus offered for his endurance was not
yet over. On the morning of the 19th, the Emperor sent
word to the Estates, that he would now send Luther back
in safety to Wittenberg, but treat him as a heretic. The
majority insisted on attempting further negotiations with
him through a Committee specially appointed. These were
conducted accordingly by the Elector of Treves, to whom
Frederick the Wise and Miltitz had once been anxious to
submit Luther's affair. The friendliness, and the visible
interest in his cause, with which Luther now was urged,
was more calculated to move him than Eck's behaviour
at the Diet. He himself bore witness afterwards how the
Archbishop had shown himself more than gracious to him,
and would willingly have arranged matters peaceably. In-
stead of being urged simply to retract all his propositions
condemned by the Pope, or his writings directed against
the Papacy, he was referred in particular to those articles in
which he rejected the decisions of the Council of Constance.
He was desired to submit in confidence to a verdict of the
Emperor and the Empire, when his books should be sub-
mitted to judges beyond suspicion. After that he should at
least accept the decision of a future Council, unfettered by
any acknowledgment of the previous sentence of the Pope.
So freely and independently of the Pope did this Committee
of the German Diet, including several bishops and Duke
George of Saxony, proceed in negotiating with a Papal
heretic. But everything was shipwrecked on Luther's firm
leservation that the decision must not be contrary to the
Word of God ; and on that question his conscience would
not allow him to renounce the right of judging for himself.
After two days' negotiations, he thus, on April 25, accord-
ing to Spalatin, declared himself to the Archbishop : ' Most

THE DIET OF WORMS. 243

gracious Lord, I cannot yield ; it must happen with me as
God wills ; ' and continued : ' I beg of your Graee that you
"will obtain for me the gracious permission of His Imperial
Majesty that I may go home again, for I have now been
here for ten days and nothing yet has been effected.'
Three hours later the Emperor sent word to Luther
that he might return to the place he came from, and
should be given a safe-conduct for twenty-one days, but
would not be allowed to preach on the way.

Free residence, however, and protection at Wittenberg, in
case Luther were condemned by the Empire, was more than
even Frederick the Wise would be able to assure him. But
he had already laid his plan for , the emergency. Spalatin
refers to it in these words : ' Now was my most gracious
Lord somewhat disheartened ; he was certainly fond of Dr.
Martin, and was also most unwilling to act against the
Word of God, or to bring upon himself the displeasure of
the Emperor. Accordingly, he devised means how to get
Dr. Martin out of the way for a time, until matters might
be quietly settled, and caused Luther also to be informed,
the evening before he left Worms, of his scheme for getting
him out of the way. At this Dr. Martin, out of deference
to his Elector, was submissively content, though, certainly,
then and at all times he would much rather have gone
courageously to the attack.'

The very next morning, Friday the 26th, Luther de-
parted. The imperial herald went behind him, so as not
to attract notice. They took the usual road to Eisenach.
At Friedberg Luther dismissed the herald, giving him
a letter to the Emperor and the Estates, in which he
defended his conduct at Worms, and his refusal to trust in
the decision of men, by saying that when God's Word and
things eternal were at stake, one's trust and dependence
should be placed, not on one man or many men, but on
God alone. At Hersfeld, where Abbot Crato, in spite of the
ban, received him with all marks of honour, and again at

b2

244 THE BREACH WITH ROME.

Eisenach, he preached, notwithstanding the Emperor's
prohibition, not daring to let the Word of God be bound.
From Eisenach, whilst Swaven, Schurf, and several other
of his companions went straight on, he struck southward,
together with Amsdorf and Brother Pezensteiner, in order
to go and see his relations at Mohra. Here, after spending
the night at the house of his uncle Heinz, he preached the
next morning, Saturday, May 4. Then, accompanied by
some of his relations, he took the road through Schweina,
past the Castle of Altenstein, and then across the back
of the Thuringian Forest to Waltershausen and Gotha.
Towards evening, when near Altenstein, he bade leave of his
relations. About half an Jiour farther on, at a spot where
the road enters the wooded heights, and ascending between
hills along a brook, leads to an old chapel, which even then
was in ruins, and has now quite disappeared, armed horse-
men attacked the carriage, ordered it to stop with threats
and curses, pulled Luther out of it, and then hurried him
away at full speed. Pezensteiner had run away as soon as
he saw them approach. Amsdorf and the coachman were
allowed to pass on ; the former was in the secret, and
pretended to be terrified, to avoid any suspicion on the
part of his companion. The Wartburg lay to the north,
about eight miles distant, and had been the starting-point
of the horsemen, as it now was their goal ; but precaution
made them ride first in an eastern direction with Luther.
The coachman afterwards related how Luther in the haste
of the flight dropped a grey hat he had worn. And now
Luther was given a horse to ride. The night was dark,
and about eleven o'clock they arrived at the stately castle,
situated above Eisenach. Here he was to be kept as a
knight-prisoner. The secret was kept as strictly as possible
towards friend and foe. For many weeks afterwards even
Frederick's brother John had no idea of it, on the contrary,
he wrote to Frederick that Luther, he had heard, was
residing at one of Sickingen's castles. Among his friends

THE DIET OF WORMS. 245

and followers the terrible news had spread, immediately
upon his capture, that he had been made away with by his
enemies.

At Worms, however, wThile the Pope w7as concluding
an alliance with Charles against France, the Papal
legate Aleander, by commission of the Emperor, pre-
pared the edict against Luther on the 8th of May.
It was not, however, until the 25th, after Frederick, the
Elector of the Palatinate, and a great part of the other
members of the Diet had already left, that it was deemed
advisable to have it communicated to the rest of the
Estates ; nevertheless it was antedated the 8th, and issued
* by the unanimous advice of the Electors and Estates.'
It pronounced upon Luther, applying the customary strong
expressions of Papal bulls, the ban and re-ban ; no one
was to receive him any longer, or feed him &c, but
wherever he was found, he was to be seized and handed
over to the Emperor.

PAET IV.

FROM THE DIET OF WORMS TO THE PEASANTS'
WAR AND LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.

CHAPTEK I.

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG, TO HIS VISIT TO WITTENBERG

IN 1521.

Luther, after being brought to the fortress, had to live
there as a knight-prisoner. He was called Squire George,
he grew a stately beard, and doffed his monk's cowl for the
dress of a knight, with a sword at his side. The governor
of the castle, Herr von Berlepsch, entertained hirn with all
honour, and he was liberally supplied with food and drink.
He was free to go about as he pleased in the apartments of
the castle, and was permitted, in the company of a trusty
servant, to take rides and walks out of doors. Thus, as he
writes to a friend, he sat up aloft, in the region of the
birds, as a curious prisoner, nolens volens, whether he willed
or no ; willing, because God would have it so, not willing,
because he would far rather have stood up for the Word of
God in public, but of such an honour God had not yet
found him worthy.

Care was also taken at once that he should be able to
correspond at least by letter with his friends, and especially
with those at Wittenberg. These letters were sent by
messengers of the Elector through the hands of Spalatin.
When Luther afterwards heard that a rumour had got abroad
as to his place of residence, he sent a letter to Spalatin, in

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG.

247

which he said : ' A report, so I hear, is spread that Luther
is staying at the Wartburg near Eisenach ; the people sup-

Fig. 26. Luther as " Squire George." (From a woodcut by Cranach.)

pose this to be the case, because I was taken prisoner in the
*ood below ; but while they believe that, I sit here safety

248 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

hidden. If the books that I publish betray me, then 1
shall change my abode ; it is very strange that nobody
thinks of Bohemia.' This letter, so Luther thought, Spa-
latin might let fall into the hands of some of his spying
opponents, so as to lead them astray in their conjecture.
Spalatin made no use of this naive attempt at trickery.
He could hardly have done much in the matter, and
would probably have directed those who saw through the
meaning of the letter straight to the Wartburg. He suc-
ceeded, however, remarkably well in keeping the spot a
secret, even after it was generally guessed and known
that Luther was to be found somewhere in Saxony. As
late as 1528, Luther's friend Agricola remarks that he
had hitherto remained concealed, whilst some even sought
to hear of him by questioning of the devil ; and more than
twenty years later Luther's opponent Cochlaeus declares
that he was hidden at Alstedt in Thuringia.

There was no imperial power at that time which might
have deemed it necessary or expedient to track out the man
who had been condemned by the Edict of Worms. The
Emperor had left Germany again, and was engaged in a
war with France.

In his quiet solitude Luther threw himself again with-
out delay into the work of his calling, so far as he could
here perform it. This was the study of Scripture and the
active exercise of his own pen in the service of God's Word.
He had now more time than before to investigate the mean-
ing of the Bible in its original languages. ' I sit here,' he
writes to Spalatin ten days after his arrival, ' the whole
day at leisure, and read the Greek and Hebrew Bible.'

His sojourn at the castle began in the festival time
between Easter and Whitsuntide. He wrote at once an
exposition of the sixty-eighth Psalm, with particular re-
ference to the events of Ascension and Whitsuntide.

For the liberation of the laity from the Papal yoke,
he set at once further to work by composing a treatise ' On

LUTHER AT THE IVARTBURG 249

Confession, whether the Pope has power to order it.' He
commends confession, when a man humbles himself and
receives forgiveness of God through the lips of a Christian
brother, but he denounces any compulsion in the matter,
and warns men against priests who pervert it into a means
of increasing their own power. He now expressed his
public thanks to Sickingen, and dedicated the book to him —
1 To the just and firm Francis von Sickingen, my especial
lord and patron.' In this dedication he repeats the fears
he had long expressed of the judgment that the clergy
would bring upon themselves by their hatred of improvement
and their obstinacy. ' I have,' he says, ' often offered peace,
I have offered them an answer, I have disputed, but all has
been of no avail : I have met with no justice, but only with
vain malice and violence, nothing more. I have been
simply called on to retract, and threatened with every evil
if I refused.' Then speaking of the critical moment at
which he was obliged to withdraw, ' I can do no more,' he
says, ' I am now out of the game. They have now time to
change that which cannot, and should not, and will not be
tolerated from them any longer. If they refuse to make
the change, another will make it for them, without their
thanks, one who will not teach like Luther with letters and
words, but with deeds. Thank God, the fear and awe of
those rogues at Rome is now less than it was.' And again,
speaking of Roman insolence : ' They push on blindly ahead
— there is no listening or reasoning. Well, I have seen
more water-bubbles than even theirs, and once such an
outrageous smoke that it managed to blot out the sun, but
the smoke never lasted, and the sun still shines. I shall
continue to keep the truth bright and expose it, and am as
far from fearing my ungracious masters as they are ready
to despise me.'

Luther now finished his exposition of the Magnificat
which, with loving devotion to the subject, he had intended
for Prince John Frederick. He resumed also his work ou

250 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

the Sunday Gospels and Epistles. The first part of it he
had already published in Latin. But he gave it now a new,
and for the Christian people of Germany, a most important
character, by writing in German his comments on these
passages of Scripture, including those already dealt with in
Latin, which formed the text of the sermon for the day.
Thus arose his first collection of sermons, the ' Church-
Postills.' By November he had already sent the first part
to the press, though the work progressed but slowly. In
a simple exposition of the words of the Bible, without any
artificial and rhetorical additions or ornament, but with a
constant and cheerful regard to practical life, with an un-
ceasing attention to the primary questions of salvation, and
in pithy, clear, and thoroughly popular language, he began
to lay before his readers the sum total of Christian truth,
and impress it on their hearts. The work served as much
for the instruction and support of other preachers of the
gospel now newly proclaimed, as for the direct teaching and
edifying of the members of their flocks. It advanced, how-
ever, only by degrees, and Luther after many years was
obliged to have it finished by friends, who collected together
printed or written copies of his various sermons.

For the special comfort and advice of his Wittenberg
congregation Luther wrote an exposition of the thirty-seventh
Psalm. Nor with less energy and force did he wield his
pen during June, in a vigorous and learned polemical reply
in Latin to the Louvain theologian, Latomus.

And yet Luther all this while continued to lament that
he had to sit there so idly in his Patmos : he would rather be
burnt in the service of God's Word than stagnate there alone.
The bodily rest which took the place of his former unwearied
activity in the pulpit and the lecturer's chair, together with
the sumptuous fare now substituted for the simple diet of
the convent, were no doubt the cause of the physical suffer-
ing which for a long time had grievously distressed him and
put his patience to the test, and which must have weighed

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 251

upon bis spirits. In his distress he once thought of going
to Erfurt to consult physicians. Some strong remedies,
however, which Spalatin got for him, gave him temporary
relief.

He took exercise in the beautiful woods around the
castle, and there, as he related afterwards, he used to look
for strawberries. In August he had news to give Spalatin
of a hunt, at which he had been present two days. He
wished to look on at ' this bitter-sweet pleasure of heroes.'
' We have,' he says, ' hunted two hares and a few poor little
partridges ; truly a worthy occupation for idle people ! ' But
among the nets and hounds he managed, as he says, to
pursue theology. He saw in it all a picture of the devil, who
by cunning and godless doctrines ensnares poor innocent
creatures. Graver thoughts still were suggested to his mind
by the fate of a little hare, which he had helped to save,
and had rolled up in the long sleeve of his cloak, but which,
on his putting it down afterwards and going away, the
dogs caught and killed. ' Thus,' he says, ' do the Pope and
Satan rage together, to destroy, despite my efforts, souls
already saved.'

At that time too he fancied he heard and saw all kinds
of devil's noises and sights, which long afterwards he
frequently described to his friends, but which he took at
the time with great calmness. Such, for instance, were a
strange continual rumbling in a chest in which he kept
hazel nuts, nightly noises of falling on the stairs, and the
unaccountable appearance of a black dog in his bed.

Of the well-known ink-stain at the Wartburg we hear
nothing either from those or after-times ; and a similar spot
was shown in the last century at the Castle of Coburg,
where Luther stayed in 1530.

In the outer world, meanwhile, the great movement that
emanated from Luther continued to advance and grow, in
spite of his disappearance. It was apparent how powerless
was his enforced absence to suppress it. Soon too it was to

252 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

be seen how much on the other hand it depended on him thai
the movement should not bring real danger and destruc
tion.

At Wittenberg his friends continued labouring faithfully
and undisturbed. Much as Melancthon troubled himself
about Luther and longed for his return, Luther relied with
confidence upon him and his efforts, as rendering his own
presence unnecessary. With joyful congratulations to
his friend he acknowledged his receipt at the Wartburg
of the sheets of his work — the Loci Communes — wherein
Melancthon, whilst intending at first only to proclaim the
fundamental principles and doctrines of the Bible, and
especially of the Epistle to the Eomans, actually laid the
foundation for the dogma of the Evangelical Church.

Just at this time new forces had stepped in to further the
work and the battle. Shortly before Luther's departure
to Worms, John Bugenhagen of Pomerania had appeared at
Wittenberg, — a man only two years younger than Luther,
well trained in theology and humanistic learning, and already
won over to Luther's doctrines by his writings, and more
especially by his work on the Babylonish Captivity. He
had made friends with Luther and Melancthon, and soon
began to teach with them at the university. John Agricola
from Eisleben had already taken part in the biblical
lectures at the university, which was then the chief place
for the exposition of evangelical doctrine. This man, born
in 1494, had lived at Wittenberg since 1516. He had from
the first been an adherent of Luther, and had v~-i his
confidence, as also that of Melancthon. He was now their
fellow-lecturer at the university, and since the spring of
1521 had been appointed by the town as catechist at the
parish church, charged with the duty of teaching children
religion. Wittenberg had also gained the services of the
learned Justus Jonas, so conspicuous for his high culture,
and a staunch and open friend of Luther. Shortly after
his journey with Luther from Erfurt to the Diet of Worms,

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 253

he obtained, by grant of the Elector, the office of provost to
the church of All Saints at Wittenberg, and became a member
also of the theological faculty at the university. The' excom-
munication under which Melancthon had fallen with Luther
did not deter the mass of students from their cause. The
academical youth who had assembled here from the whole
of Germany, and from Switzerland, Poland, and other
countries, were renowned for the exemplary unity in which,
unlike their brethren in most of the universities in those
days, they lived together and devoted themselves to the purest
and most elevating studies. Everywhere students might be
seen with Bibles in their hands ; the young nobles and sons
of burghers applied themselves diligently to self-discipline ;
and the drinking-bouts practised elsewhere, and so destruc-
tive to the muses, were unknown among them.

Luther, by his behaviour at Worms in particular, had
fastened upon himself the eyes of all Germany. The pro-
ceedings before the Diet, made known, as they would be
nowadays, by the newspapers, were then published abroad
by means of fugitive pamphlets of a longer or shorter kind.
Luther's speech in particular was circulated from notes made
paTtly by himself, partly by others. Day after day, and
especially during the sittings of the Diet, a number of other
short tracts and fly-sheets set forth, mainly in the form of a
dialogue, a popular discussion and explanation of his cause.
His fate at Worms was immediately proclaimed in a book
called ' The Passion of Dr. Martin Luther,' the title of which
sufficiently indicated the analogy suggested. Then came
the stirring and disquieting news of his sudden kidnapping
by the powers of darkness ; rumours which only served to
stimulate him further in his concealment to speak out and
march forwards with undaunted courage and assurance.

As writers who now began to labour for the cause in a
similar spirit to Luther's and in a similarly popular style
and manner, we must not omit to name the following. First
and foremost was Eberlin of Giinzburg, formerly a Fran-

254 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

ciscan at Tubingen ; next, the Augustine monk Michael
Stifel of Esslingen, who came himself to Wittenberg and
joined there the circle of friends ; and lastly, the Franciscan
Henry von Kettenbach at Ulm. The authors of some other
influential works, such as the dialogue ' Neu Karsthans '
(Karsthans being a name for peasants), are not known with
certainty. In these men and their writings, ideas and
thoughts already made their appearance, going beyond the
intentions of Luther, and into a territory which, from his
standpoint of religion, he would rather have seen more
exactly defined, and taking up weapons which he had rejected.
Thus ' Karsthans ' contains the advice to break off, after the
example of the Hussites in Bohemia, from most of the
Churches, as being tainted with avarice and superstition ;
and a rising against the clergy is contemplated, in which
the nobles and peasants should combine. Eberlin, with his
extraordinary energy, not content with the most compre-
hensive and far-reaching schemes of ecclesiastical reform,
plunged into questions affecting the wants of municipal,
social, and political life, which Luther, in his Address to the
German Nobility, had only briefly alluded to, and had care-
fully distinguished from his own particular work in hand.
To the dealings of the great merchants he showed himself
more hostile even than Luther ; and put forward such pro-
posals as the establishment by the civil authorities of a
cheaper tariff of prices for provisions, the appointment to
magisterial offices by election, for which peasants also should
be qualified, and free rights of hunting and fishing.

The Edict of Worms, intended to proscribe and suppress
throughout Germany the heretic and his writings, was
published in the different states and towns by the princes
and magistrates ; but the power, and partly also the will,
was wanting to enforce its execution. At Erfurt, shortly
after Luther's passage through the town upon his way to
Worms, the interference of the clergy against a member ol
a religious institution which had taken part in the ovation

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 255

accorded to the Reformer, gave the first occasion to violent
and repeated tumults. Students and townspeople attacked
upwards of sixty houses of the priests, and demolished
them. Luther told his friends at once, that he saw in
this the work of Satan, who sought by this means to bring
contempt and legitimate reproach upon the gospel.

Elsewhere, and above all at Wittenberg, his followers
busied themselves in his absence with putting into practice
what he had defended with his words. Calmly and with
mature deliberation and courage, Luther took part in their
Jabours from the solitude of his watch-tower. He had a
very lively and, as he himself confesses, often painful
consciousness of his own responsibility, as the one who had
put the first match to the great fire, and whose first duties
lay with his Wittenberg brethren, as their teacher and
pastor.

Shortly after his arrival at the Wartburg, he received
the news that Bartholomew Bernhardi of Feldkirchen, pro-
vost in the little town of Kemberg near Wittenberg, had
publicly, and with the consent of his congregation, taken a
wife. He was not the first priest who had ventured to
break the unchristian prohibition of marriage by the Romish
Church. But he was the most distinguished of such
offenders hitherto, besides being a particular disciple of
Luther and a man of unimpeachable integrity. Luther
wrote about it to Melancthon, saying : ' I admire the newly
married man, who in these stormy times has no fears, and
has lost no time about it. May God guide him.'

At Wittenberg it was now demanded, not without
violence, that monasticism should be abolished, and that
the mass and the Lord's Supper should be changed in
conformity with the institution of Christ. It seemed as if
here, in the place of Luther, who had gone before with the
simple testimony of the Word and doctrine, two other men
were now to step in as practical and energetic Reformers.
One of them was Luther's old colleague, Carlstadt, who had

256 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

returned in July from a short visit to Copenhagen, whithel
the King of Denmark had invited him to promote the new
evangelical theology at the university, but had soon again
dismissed him, and who now assumed the lead at Witten-
berg with a passionate and ambitious, but undeterminate
zeal. The other was the Augustine monk, Gabriel Z willing,
who had introduced himself to notice as a fiery preacher
in the convent church, and in spite of his unattractive
appearance and weak voice had drawn together a large
congregation from the town and university, and fascinated
them with his eloquence. A young Silesian wrote home
from the university of Wittenberg about him, saying : ' God
has raised up for us another prophet ; many call him a
second Luther. Melancthon is never absent when he
preaches.'

For the clergy Carlstadt sought, by a perverse interpre-
tation of Scripture, to make the married state into a law.
Only married men were to be appointed to offices in the
Church. For monks and nuns he claimed the liberty of
renouncing their cloistered and celibate life, if they found its
moral requirements insupportable ; but the biblical evidence
that he adduced in support of this doctrine was unhappily
chosen ; and he still declared the renunciation of vows to be
a sin, though justified by the avoidance thereby of a still
greater sin, that of unchastity in monastic life. Luther had
required that at the Lord's Supper the cup, in accordance
with the original institution of Christ, should be given to the
laity. Carlstadt and Zwilling, however, wished to make it a
sin for a person to partake of the Communion without the cup
being given to the communicants. Other changes also were
now demanded in the mode of administering the elements,
conformably with the Holy Supper held by Jesus Himself
with His twelve disciples. Zwilling would have twelve
communicants at a time partake of the bread and wine. It
was further insisted that, like as at ordinary meals, the
elements should be given into the hand of each individual

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 257

to partake of, and not put into his mouth by the priest.
The sacrifice of the mass Z willing would abolish altogether,
but Carlstadt thought it necessary, in dealing with so impor-
tant a feature of the old form of worship, to proceed with
caution.

Upon these questions and proceedings Luther expressed
his opinion early in August to Melancthon, who was keenly
excited about them, but on many points was unsettled in
his mind. The project of restoring at Wittenberg the
celebration of the Lord's Supper, as originally instituted,
with the cup, met with Luther's full approval; for the
tyranny which the Christian congregations had hitherto
endured in this respect had been acknowledged there, and
there was a general wish to resist it. He declared further,
with regard to private masses, that he was resolved
never to say any more while he lived. But compulsion
he would not dream of: if any who still suffered from
this tyranny partook of the Communion without the cup,
no man durst account it to him as a sin. As for the
troubles of the monks and nuns, under their self-imposed
vows, his sympathy for them was no less acute than that of
his friends at Wittenberg, but the arguments by which they
sought to help them to liberty he did not consider sound.
He gave now this subject a more searching and deeper
consideration, and shortly addressed a series of theses
on celibacy to the bishops and deacons of the church at
Wittenberg. He attacked vows in general, and assailed
them at the very root. Inasmuch, moreover, as the vows
of chastity, he said, and of other monastic observances were
commonly made to God with the intent and purpose of
working out one's own salvation by one's own works and
righteousness, these were not vows in accordance with the
will of God, but denials of the faith. And even though a
man should have made a vow in a spirit of piety, he placed
himself at all events, by his own will and act, under a re-
straint and yoke at variance with the gospel and the liberty

s

258 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

which faith in Christ hestows. Luther went still farther,
and declared that the chastity enjoined upon the monk
was only possible if he possessed the special gift of con-
tinence spoken of by St. Paul. How dare a man make a
vow to God, which God must first endue him with the
power to keep ? A man, therefore, in vowing chastity,
makes a vow which it is not really possible for him to keep,
whilst true chastity is made possible for him by God in the
married life which he condemns. These vows, accordingly,
are radically vicious and displeasing to God, and cease to
be binding on a Christian who has been made free in faith,
and has recognised the true will of God.

Personally concerned as Luther was, as an Augustine
monk himself, in these questions which he discussed, he
treated the liberty, which inwardly he knew himself to
possess, as quietly and coolly as possible. On receiving the
news from Wittenberg, he wrote to Spalatin, ' Good Heaven !
our Wittenbergers will allow even the monks to have
wives, but they shall not force me to take one.' And he
asks Melancthon jokingly, if he was going to revenge him-
self upon him for having helped him to get a wife ; he
would know well enough how to guard against that.

At Wittenberg there was great excitement, particularly
on account of the mass. In the Augustinian convent
there, the majority of the monks held with Z willing ; they
wished to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
in strict accordance with the institution of Christ. Their
prior, Conrad Held, took the opposite side, and adhered to
the ancient usage. Justus Jonas, the provost, expressed his
views with equal ardour in the convent church attached
to the university, and met with violent opposition from
other members of the foundation. A committee, composed
of deputies from the university and chapter of canons, from
whom the Elector in October demanded a formal opinion on
the subject, expressed by their majority the same view, and
requested the Elector himself to abolish the abuse of the

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 259

mass. But Frederick utterly rejected the idea of decreeing
on his own authority innovations which would constitute a
deviation from the great Christian Catholic Church, more
especially as opinions were not agreed on them even at
Wittenberg. He would do no more than give free scope
and protection to the new testimony of biblical truth, until
it should be properly sifted by the Church. In the church
of the Augustinian convent, the mass and the Lord's
Supper were now both suspended.

Men set to work now in earnest to give effect to the
new principles applied to monachism. Thirteen Augustine
monks, about a third of the then inmates of the convent
at Wittenberg, quitted that convent early in November,
and cast away their cowls. Some of them took up at
once a civil trade or handicraft. This step increased
the growing feeling of hostility to the monks among the
students and inhabitants of the town. All kinds of
enormities ensued : monks were mocked at in the streets ;
the convents were threatened ; and even the service of the
mass was disturbed by rioters who forced their way into the
parish church.

Meanwhile Luther went on, in the quietness of his
seclusion, to teach the Christian truth about vows and
masses, to explain and establish his newly-acquired know-
ledge and convictions, and to prepare by that means the
way of ultimate reform. He composed a tract, in Latin
and German, ' On the Abuse of Masses,' and another, in
Latin, ' On Monastic Yows.' The latter he dedicated to his
father, taking note of his protest against his entering the
convent, and telling him with joy that he was now a free
man, a monk, and yet no longer a monk. As for his
brethren's desertion of the convent, however, he dis-
approved the manner of it. They could, and should, have
parted in peace and amity, not as they did, in a tumult.
These two works he completed in November, and sent
them to Spalatin, to have them printed at Wittenberg.

s2

260 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

In this manner Luther occupied himself from the summer
to the winter, continuing all the while his biblical studies
and the composition of his Church-Postills. But he was
also preparing to deal a heavy blow at the Cardinal Albert.
This prelate had abstained as yet, with great caution, from
taking any stringent measures to prevent the spread of
Lutheran preaching in his diocese. But he was in want
of money. To supply this want, he published a work,
giving news of a precious relic, which he had placed for
view at Halle, his town, and inviting pilgrimages to see it.
A multitude of other rich and wondrous relics had been
collected there ; not only heaps of bones and entire corpses
of saints, with a portion of the body of the patriarch
Isaac, but also pieces of the manna, as it had fallen from
heaven in the desert, little bits of the burning bush of
Moses, jars from the wedding at Cana, and some of the wine
into which Jesus there had changed the water, thorns from
the Saviour's crown, one of the stones with which Stephen
was stoned, and a multitude of other, in all nearly 9,000,
relies. Whoever should attend with devotion at the exhibi-
tion of these sacred treasures in the Collegiate Church at
Halle, and should give a pious alms to the institution, was
to receive a ' surpassing ' indulgence. The first exhibition
of this kind took place about the beginning of September.
Albert also had not scrupled to cause one of the priests
who wished to marry to be imprisoned, though it was
notorious how he himself made up for his celibacy by his
loose living.

Luther now, as he wrote to Spalatin on October 7, 1521,
could not restrain himself any longer from breaking out,
in private and in public, against his * Idol of indulgences '
and his scandalous whoredoms. He took no thought of the
fact that his own pious Elector, only a few years before, had
arranged a similar, though less showy exhibition of relics at
the convent church at Wittenberg, and was thus indirectly
assailed by reproaches now no longer deserved. By the end

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 261

of the month Luther had a pamphlet ready for publication.
Biiu an attack of such a kind on a magnate like Albert,
the great prince of the Empire, Elector of Mayence, and
brother of the Elector of Brandenburg, was not to Frede-
rick's taste, and he informed Luther, through Spalatin,
that he forbade it. He would not sanction anything, he
said, which might disturb the public peace. Luther told
Spalatin, in his reply, that he had never read a more dis-
agreeable letter than Frederick's. ' I will not put up with
it,' he indignantly broke out ; ' I will rather lose you and the
prince himself, and every living being. If I have stood up
against the Pope, wThy should I yield to his creature ? ' He
wished only to show his pamphlet first to Melancthon, and
submit a few alterations in it to the judgment of his friend.
For this purpose he sent it to Spalatin, requesting him to
forward it. Then, on December 1, he wrote a letter to Albert
himself. Its tone and contents indicate pretty plainly what
the pamphlet itself contained. In clear vigorous German,
and without any circumlocution, he submits to the Cardinal
his ' humble request,' to abstain from corrupting the poor
people, and not to show himself a wrolf in bishop's clothing.
He must surely know by this time that indulgences were
sheer knavery and trickery. He was not to imagine that
Luther was dead : Luther would trust cheerfully in God,
and carry on a game with the Cardinal of Mayence, of which
not many people wTere yet aware. As for the priests who
had wished to marry, he wTarned the Archbishop that a
cry would be raised from the gospel about it ; and the
bishops would learn that they had better first pluck out the
beam from their own eyes, and drive their own mistresses
awTay. Luther concluded by giving him fourteen days for a
'proper' answer; otherwise, when that time expired, he would
immediately publish his pamphlet on ' The Idol at Halle.'

All this while, the news from Wittenberg kept Luther in
a state of constant anxiety. The distance and the difficulty
of correspondence had become quite insupportable. A

262 . EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

few days after his letter of December 1, he suddenly
re-appeared there among his friends. In secret, and accom-
panied only by a servant, he had gone thither on horseback
in his knight's dress. He stayed there for three days with
Amsdorf. Only his most intimate friends were allowed to
know of his arrival. His meeting with them again gave
him, as he wrote to Spalatin, the keenest pleasure and en-
joyment. But it was a bitter sorrow to hear that Spalatin
would not look at, or listen to, his pamphlet against Albert,
nor his tracts on masses and monastic vows, but had kept
them back. What his friends now told him of their efforts
and labours he approved of, and he wished them strength
from above to persevere. But he had heard already, when
on his way, of fresh outrages committed by some of the
townspeople and students against the priests and monks,
and henceforth he deemed it his nearest duty to warn them
publicly against such acts of violence and disorder.

263

GHAPTEE II.
luther's further sojourn at the wartburg, and his

RETURN TO WITTENBERG, 1522.

In secret, as he had first gone there, Luther returned to the
Wartburg, and now set to work with his ' True Admonition
for all Christians to abstain from turbulence and rebellion.'
He had before his eyes the danger of an insurrection,
involving the lives of all the priests and monks who opposed
reform, and one in which the common people, in revenge
for their many grievances, might fall to laying about them
with clubs and flails, as the ' Karsthans ' threatened. To
the princes, magistrates, and nobles, he had already
addressed a demand to put a stop to the corruption of
the Church and the tyranny of the Pope. Of the civil
authorities and the nobility, he says now that ' they ought
to do this, in duty to their ordinary position and power,
every prince and lord on his own territory; for what is
brought about by the exercise of ordinary power is not to
be accounted turbulence.' At the same time, to the masses
and to individuals he plainly prohibits a rising by force.
Turbulence was the usurpation of justice, and revenge,
which God would not suffer, for He said, ' Revenge is Mine.'
All turbulence, he said, was wrong, however good might be
the cause, and only made bad worse. As for the magistrates,
he would not have them kill the priests, as once Moses and
Elias had done to the worshippers of idols ; they were
simply to forbid them from acting contrary to the gospel.
Words would do more than was enough with them, so there
was no need of hewing and stabbing. We have seen how

264 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

emphatically Luther expressed himself to the same effect
before he went to Worms. The Apostle's words that the
Lord should consume the Antichrist with the Spirit of His
Mouth, were to be fulfilled, according to Luther, in the
words of gospel preaching. It was his own previous
experience that had taught him to rely with such lofty
confidence on the simple Word ; he had done more injury
with it alone to the Pope, and the priests and monks, than
all the emperors and princes had ever done with all their
power. He still looked forward steadfastly to the approach
of the Last Day, when Christ by His coming should utterly
destroy the Pope, whose iniquity the Word had exposed.
As he had done formerly in his treatise on Christian
liberty, and had now good reason to do with the Witten-
bergers, he exhorts men to a loving and merciful regard to
their weaker brethren, whose consciences were still ensnared
by the old ordinances respecting fasting and masses. They
ought not to be taken unawares, but instructed kindly
and, if unable to agree at once, dealt with patiently. ' The
wolves,' he says, ' cannot be treated too severely, nor the
tender sheep too gently.'

Luther's works on the mass and monastic vows were
now actually in print. Cardinal Albert, however, gave the
answer demanded by Luther, in a short letter of December
21. He assured him that the subject of his complaint had
been removed ; that as to himself, he did not deny that he
was a miserable sinner, the very filth of the earth, as bad as
anyone. Christian chastisement he could well endure ; he
looked to God for grace and strength, to live according to
His will. So abjectly did this magnate quail before the
Word, with which Luther threatened to expose his doings.
He must no doubt have been ashamed of his traffic in
indulgences before all his Humanist friends, and especially
Erasmus ; and must have expected that the other scandals
with which Luther charged him would be laid bare without
mercy or regard. At the same time we see in all this, how

LUTHER AT THE WART BURG. 265

perfectly free from reproach in this matter of morality must
Luther have been, not only in his own conscience, but also
in the eyes of Albert. Luther, on receiving this letter,
doubted indeed the sincerity of its professions, and even
abstained from acknowledging it. But he now finally
abandoned, nevertheless, the publication of the pamphlet,
intended to expose him, which had hitherto been hindered
by the Elector.

But the most important task that Luther now undertook,
and in which he persevered with steadfast devotion during
his further stay at the Wartburg, was one of a peaceful
character, the most beautiful fruit of his seclusion, the
noblest gift that he has bequeathed to his countrymen.
This was his translation of the Bible — first of the New
Testament. ' Our brethren demand it of me,' he wrote to
Lange shortly after his return from Wittenberg. And in
these words the wish was evidently expressed, or else laid
to heart anew. The Bible, it is true, had been translated
into German before Luther's time, but in a clumsy idiom
that sounded foreign to the people, and not, like Luther's
version, from the original text, but from the Latin translation
used in the churches. Luther declared that no one could
speak German of this outlandish kind, ' but,' he said, ' one
has to ask the mother in her home, the children in the street,
the common man in the market-place, and look at their
mouths to see how they speak, and thence interpret it to one-
self, and so make them understand. I have often laboured
to do this, but have not always succeeded or hit the
meaning.' None the less strictly and faithfully did he seek
to adhere to the spirit of the text, and, where necessary,
even to the letter. Such an interpretation, he said, re-
quired a ' truly devout, faithful, diligent, fearful, Christian,
learned, experienced, and practised heart.' Penetrated him-
self with the substance and spirit of the Scriptures, he under-
stood how to combine in his language, as if by intuition,
a dignified tone and a national character. So hard did he

266 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

work, that he finished the New Testament at the Wartburg
in a few months ; he then wished to revise it with the help
of Melancthon.

Meanwhile, affairs at Wittenberg were assuming so
serious an aspect as to make Luther's apprehensions
increase from day to day. The question of monastic vows
indeed was settled peaceably, and in a manner such as
Luther would have desired, by some resolutions (so far as
resolutions could settle it), passed by the Augustinian
brethren at a chapter held at Wittenberg by Link, the
Vicar of the Order. It was there resolved that free permis-
sion should be given to leave the convent, but that those
who preferred to adhere to the monastic life should remain
there in voluntary but strict subordination to their superiors
and to the established rules ; some of them should be
employed in preaching the Word of God, others should con-
tribute by manual labour to the support of the institution.
Outside, however, among the people of Wittenberg, Carlstadt,
who had shortly before restrained even his own partisans
in regard to the question of the mass, and who was neither
a regular preacher in the town nor in the possession of any
other office, now pressed forward, by his sermons and
writings, impetuously in the van, and made hasty strides
towards the furtherance of his misty projects of reform.
Anticipating a prohibition from the Elector, he celebrated
the Lord's Supper at Christmas in the new manner. Even
the usual vestments were discarded as idolatrous : Zwilling
performed the service in a student's gown. The people
were enjoined to eat meat and eggs on fast days; and
confession was no longer held before the Communion.
Carlstadt went further, and denounced the pictures and
images in the churches ; it was not enough to desist from
worshipping them, nor durst it be hinted that they served
as books for the instruction of laymen. God had plainly
forbidden them ; their proper place was in the fire and not
in God's house. Whilst the town-council, at his instance,

LUTHER AT THE WART BURG. 267

resolved to have the images removed from the parish
church, some of the populace stormed in, tore them down,
hewed them to pieces, and burned them.

Luther himself, even with regard to rites and ordinances
which he rejected altogether, always counselled moderation
and patience towards the weak. He could not believe that
the great body of his Wittenberg congregation were already
ripe for such changes, or that many conscientious but weaker
brethren among them were not in need of tender considera-
tion. People might say that it was only a question of time ;
well, he did not wish to delay genuine reform for ever,
merely to humour the minority. But it was precisely that
those members should have proper time allowed them, and
every means taken for their instruction and edification, that
was to Luther a matter of conscience. External matters,
of which the other Reformers made so much, such as eating
on fast days, the taking with one's own hands the bread
and wine at the Communion, and so forth, he regarded as
trifles, the performance or non-performance of which in no
way affected the true liberty of the faithful, while grievous
wrong was done to the souls of the weaker brethren, if
they were compelled to do anything therein against their
consciences. 'By acting thus,' he says, 'you have made
many consciences miserable ; if they had to give an account
on their death-beds, or when troubled with temptation, they
would not for the life of them know why or how they had
offended.' Nay, he accuses a man of corrupting souls, who
1 plunges ' them carelessly into practices that offend their
consciences. ' You wish,' he says, ' to serve God, and you
don't know that you are the forerunners of the devil. He
has begun by attempting to dishonour the Word ; he has
set you to work at that bit of folly, so that meanwhile you
may forget faith and love.' Thus Luther wrote in a work
intended for the Wittenbergers. Even the innovations
with regard to pictures and images he numbers among the
f trivial matters which are not worth the sacrifice of faith

268 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

and love.' Those which represented truly Christian subjects
he would preserve at all times, and he valued them highly.

These Wittenberg Reformers, however, with all their
desire to assert the higher spiritual character of evangelical
Christianity, still remained devotees, in their peculiar ' spirit,'
to the externals of worship and, in regard to images, to the
letter of the Old Testament law. And yet their conception of
the Christian spirit and of Christian revelation produced
results of another and still stranger kind. Not only did
they repudiate all titles and dignities conferred by the
university, on the plea that, in the words of Christ, no man
durst call himself Eabbi or master, but Carlstadt and
Z willing now openly expressed their contempt of all human
theology and biblical learning. God, they said, has hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed
them unto babes ; the Spirit from above must enlighten
a man. Carlstadt went to simple burghers in their houses,
to have passages in the Bible explained to him. He and
Z willing won over to their side the master of the boys'
school in the town, and the school was broken up. A new
municipal constitution, supported by the magistracy, made
strange inroads on the rights of the citizens and the domain
of social life ; a common chest, containing the revenues of the
Church, was utilised for advancing money without interest
to needy handicraftsmen, and making loans to other towns-
men at a low rate of interest. Meantime the spiritual
wants of the community were neglected, and in the hospitals
and prisons entirely overlooked.

Such was the direction here taken by the reform for
which Luther's preaching had prepared the way. And just
at this time, at Christmas, three fanatics came to Wittenberg
from Zwickau, with the object of taking part in the move-
ment and furthering the work of God. These were Nicholas
Storch, a weaver, Mark Stiibner, a former student at
Wittenberg, and another weaver, who were now zealously
joined by the theologian Martin Cellarius. They boasted

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 269

of a direct revelation from God, of prophetic visions, dreams,
and familiar conversations with the Deity. Compared with
these pretensions, Scripture was a thing of small importance
in their eyes. They rejected infant baptism, as incapable
of imparting the Spirit. For communion and intercourse
with God they looked not to faith, which, as Luther taught,
accepts submissively what the Word of God reveals to the
conscience and the heart, but to a mystic process of self-
abstraction from everything external, sensual, and finite,
until the soul becomes immovably centred in the one Divine
Being. This spirit, seemingly so elevated and pure, broke
out nevertheless into fanaticism of the wildest kind, by
proclaiming and demanding a general revolution, in which
all the priests were to be killed, all godless men destroyed,
and the kingdom of God established.

These fanatical displays had begun at Zwickau, no doubt
under Bohemian influence, and were characterised by the
ravings common to the middle ages. Thomas Miinzer, from
Stolberg in the Harz country, who was a preacher at one
of the churches, took the lead ; and he was certainly the most
important and most dangerous personage among them. He
accounted the civil authorities, with their rights, no more as
Christians than he did the clergy and the hierarchy ; and
began already to prate of universal equality and communism.
This novel and exciting doctrine soon won adherents, and
propagated the ' spirit of revelation.' Already disturbances
were brewing. But the magistrates took vigorous and
timely measures. Storch, Stiibner, and Cellarius fled to
Wittenberg, while Miinzer roamed about elsewhere in
Germany.

Carlstadt went on with his innovations without allying
himself outwardly with these refugees. But the connection
of his aims with theirs could not be mistaken, and as time
went on, became more and more apparent. Melancthon,
with all his refinement and purity of soul, had not suffi-
cient energy and independence to bridle the passions and

270 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

forces that had heen aroused by Carlstadt. The Zwickau
prophets, with their visions and revelations, haunted him ;
he seemed incapable of forming any settled or sober judg-
ment on this strange and sudden phenomenon.

Luther, on the contrary, received the news with calm-
ness and composure. He marvelled at the anxiety of his
friend, who in intellect and learning was his superior. He
found no difficulty in testing these enthusiasts by the
standard of the New Testament. There was nothing, he
said, in their words and acts, so far as he had heard any-
thing of them, which the devil might not do or mimic. As
for their so-called ecstasies of devotion, there was nothing
in all that, even though they boasted of being rapt into the
third heaven. The Majesty of God was not wont to hold
such familiar converse with men in old time. The creature
must first perish before his Creator, as before a consuming
fire : when God speaks, he must feel the meaning of the
words of Isaiah, ' As a lion, so will he break all my bones.'
And yet Luther would not have them imprisoned or dealt
with by violence ; they could be disposed of without blood-
shed and the sword, and be laughed out of their folly.

But his cares for his Wittenberg congregation and the
trouble which Carlstadt' s doings there were giving him, left
him no peace. He could not justify those acts before God
and the world : they lay upon his own shoulders, and above
all, they brought discredit on the gospel. In January he
went back to Wittenberg. He was entreated to do so by
the magistrates. In vain did the Elector attempt to detain
him, and so prevent his risking an appearance in public.
Moreover, the Council of Eegency at Nuremberg, which
represented the Emperor in his absence, had just demanded
of Frederick a strict suppression of the innovations at
Wittenberg.

Luther quitted the Wartburg, without leave, on March 1.
About his journey thence we only know that he passed
through Jena and the town of Borna, lying south of

LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 271

Leipzig. A young Swiss, John Kessler from St. Gallen, who
was then on his way with a companion to the university at
Wittenberg, has left us an interesting account of their meet-
ing with Luther at the inn of the ' Black Bear,' just outside
Jena. They found there a solitary horseman sitting at
the table, ' dressed after the fashion of the country in a red
schlepli (or slouched hat), plain hose and doublet — he had
thrown aside his tabard — with a sword at his side, his right
hand resting on the pommel, and the other grasping the
hilt.' Before him lay a little book. He invited them in a
friendly manner, bashful as they were, to take a seat by him,
and spoke to them about the Wittenberg studies, about
Melancthon and other men of learning, and as to what
people thought of Luther in Switzerland. Discoursing thus,
he made them feel so much at ease, that Kessler's com-
panion took up the little book lying before him, and opened
it : it was a Hebrew Psalter. At supper, where they were
joined by two merchants, he paid for Kessler and his friend,
and fascinated them all by his ' agreeable and godly dis-
course.' Afterwards he drank with his }roung friends ' one
more friendly glass for a blessing,' gave them his hand at
parting, and charged them to greet the jurist Schurf at
Wittenberg, who was a fellow-countryman of theirs by birth,
with the words ' He who is coming, salutes you.' The host
had recognised Luther, and told his guests who he was.
Early next morning the merchants found him in the stable :
he mounted his horse, and rode forward on his way.

At Borna, where he lodged with an official of the Elector,
he wrote in haste a long answer to the warning instructions
of his prince, convej^ed to him by the governor of Eisenach on
the eve of his departure. He did not seek to excuse himself,
or to beg forgiveness, but to quiet his ' most gracious High-
ness,' and confirm him in the faith. He had never spoken
with greater certainty about what he had to do, nor with a
calmer and more joyful, bold, and proud assurance, in view of
what lay before him, than now, when he had to encounter,

272 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

on two contrary sides, opposition and danger. In his resolve
and his hopes he threw himself entirely on his God. ' I go
to Wittenberg,' he writes to Frederick, ' under a far higher
protection than yours. Nay, I hold that I can offer your
Highness more protection than your Highness can offer
me. . . God alone must be the worker here, without any
human care or help ; therefore, he who has the most faith
will be able to give the most protection.' To the question
what the Elector should do in his cause, he answered,
1 nothing at all.' The Elector must allow the Imperial
authorities to exercise their powers in his territory without
let or hindrance, even if they chose to seize him or put him
to death. The Elector would surely not be called on to be
his executioner. Should he leave the door open and give
safe- conduct to those who sought to capture him, he would
have done his duty quite enough.

Luther rode on undaunted, even through the territory
of Duke George, who was now violently exasperated with
him and the people of Wittenberg ; and on the evening of
March 6 he reached his destination and his friends, safe in
body and happy in his mind.

On the morning of the following Saturday, Kessler and
his companion, on visiting Schurf, found Luther sitting
at his house with Melancthon, Jonas, and Amsdorf, and
telling them about his doings. Kessler thus 'describes his
appearance. ' When I saw Martin in 1522, he was some-
what stout, but upright, bending backwards rather than
stooping ; with a face upturned to heaven ; with deep, dark
eyes and eyebrows, twinkling and sparkling like stars, so that
one could hardly look steadily at them.'

273

CHAPTEK III.

luther's re- appearance and fresh labours at
wittenberg, 1522.

It was on a Thursday that Luther arrived again at Witten-
berg. The very next Sunday he re-appeared in his old
pulpit among his town congregation. In clear, simple,
earnest, and Scriptural language he endeavoured to explain
to them their errors, and to lead them again into the right
way. For eight successive days he preached in this man-
ner. The truths and principles he propounded were the
same that he uttered from the Wartburg, and, indeed, ever
since his career of reformation began. Above all things
he exhorted them to charity, and to deal with their faithful
fellow- Christians as God had dealt with them in His love,
whereof through faith they were partakers. ' In this, dear
friends,' he said, ' you are almost entirely wanting, and not
a trace of charity can I see in you, but perceive rather
that you have not been thankful to God. I see, indeed,
that you can discourse well enough on the doctrines of faith
and love which have been preached to you, and no wonder :
cannot even a donkey sing his lesson ? and should you not
then speak and teach the doctrine or the little Word ? But
the kingdom of God does not consist in talk or words, but
in deeds, in works and practice.' He taught them to dis-
tinguish between what was obligatory and what was free,
between what was to be observed or what was not. Charity
must be practised, he said, even in essentials, since no man
must compel his brother by force, but must let the Word
operate on the hearts of the weak and erring, and pray for

t

274 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

them. Whatever is free must be left free, so as not to
cause vexation to the weak ; but against unchristian tyrants
a stand must be made for freedom.

Thus, with the sheer power and fervour of his eloquence,
Luther prevailed with his congregation, and soon had the
conduct of the Church movement again in his hands. Zwill-
ing allowed himself to be reproved. Carlstadt shrank back
silently, though sullenly ; Luther earnestly begged him not
to publish anything hostile and thus compel him to a battle.
In his sermons he refrained from all personal references. Of
the recent innovations, only one was retained, the omission
from the mass of the words relating to the sacrifice of the
Body of Christ by the priests. Luther considered them
downright objectionable and unchristian ; and important as
they were in themselves, they were scarcely noticed by the
weak and simple, being uttered in Latin, and in a low voice.
The sacrament was again administered to the majority in
one kind ; and only those who expressly desired it could
receive it with the lay-cup at an altar set aside for the pur-
pose. The latter form of celebration, however, soon became
the general custom, to the exclusion of the former. As
regards the vestments to be worn during service, the taking
the elements into one's own hand, and such-like matters,
Lather maintained that they were too trifling to make a
fuss about, or to be allowed to be a stumbling-block to the
weak adherents of the old system. Luther himself returned
to live at the convent, resumed his cowl, and observed
again the customary ordinance of fasting. It was only after
two years, when his frock was quite worn out, and he had
a new suit made of some good cloth which the Elector had
given him, that he laid aside altogether his monk's dress.

The prophets of Zwickau were away from Wittenberg
at the moment when Luther returned there. A few weeks
after Stubner and Cellarius appeared before Luther. Their
real character and spirit were now fully shown him by
the arrogance and violence with which they demanded

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 275

belief in their superior authority, and by their outburst of
rage when he ventured to contradict them. He writes thus
to Spalatin : ' I have caught them even in open lying ; when
they tried to evade me with miserable smooth words, I at
last bade them prove their teaching by miracles, of which
they boasted against the Scriptures. This they refused,
but threatened that I should have to believe them some
day. Thereupon I told them that their God could work no
miracle against the will of my God. Thus we separated.'
They then left the town for ever, without having gained
any ground there.

Thus Luther, who was accused by his enemies of sub-
verting all ordinances of the Church, began his practical
labours of reform by checking, through the firmness and
clearness of his principles, the violence of others, and
concentrating all his thoughts on the spiritual welfare of
his congregation. The preacher of free and saving faith
was the foremost to insist, in the practical conduct of the
Church, upon the active exercise of brotherly love in the
service of true freedom. The great man of the people
opposed himself, regardless of popular favour or dislike, to
the current which had now become national. Under the
influence of his preaching the Elector could now quietly
allow matters in Wittenberg and the neighbourhood to
shape their further course in quiet. Nevertheless, he per-
mitted the neighbouring bishops to work against the new
doctrines by visitations in his country ; he only denied
them the assistance of magisterial compulsion and temporal
penalties. The truth should make its own way.

Luther, immediately on his return to Wittenberg, was
impatient to explain in full to German Christendom his
position, without the restraints imposed on his words during
his residence at the Wartburg. This he did in a letter
to the knight Hartmuth von Kronberg, near Frankfort-
on-the-Main, which he intended for publication. The latter,
son-in-law to Sickingen, a man of upright, honourable,

r 2

276 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

Christian character, had published a couple of little tracts
in Luther's spirit. Luther, by his letter, wished to 'visit
him in spirit and make known to him his joy.' He took
the opportunity, at the same time, of speaking his mind
plainly, both about the contest he had to wage at Witten-
berg, and the hostility to the gospel displayed by Roman-
ists in Germany. But harder yet for the faith than the
snares of such enemies, appeared to him ' the cunning
game ' devised by Satan at Wittenberg, to bring reproach
upon the gospel. ' Not all my enemies,' he said, ' have hit
me as I now am hit by our people, and I must confess
that the smoke makes my eyes smart and almost tickles
my heart. " Hereby," thought the Evil One, " I will take
the heart out of Luther and weary the tough spirit ; this
attack he will neither understand nor conquer ! " Fear-
lessly also, and in a manner which would have been
impossible to him at the Wartburg, he spoke out against
the grievous ' sin at Worms, when the truth of God was
so childishly despised, so publicly, defiantly, wilfully con-
demned ; ' it was a sin of the whole German nation, because
the heads had done this, and no one at the godless Diet had
opposed them. He reproached himself with having, in
order to please good friends there, and not to appear too
obstinate, smothered his feelings and not spoken out his
belief with more vigour and decision before the tyrants,
however much the unbelieving heathens might have abused
him for answering haughtily. Of one of his ■ miserable
enemies ' he says : ' The chief one is the water-bladder N.,
who defies Heaven with his high stomach, and has re-
nounced the gospel. He would like to devour Christ, as
the wolf does a gnat.' This was an unmistakable allusion
to Duke George, who, in his bigoted devotion to the Church,
was especially excited by the dangerous influences which
threatened his country from the neighbouring Wittenberg,
and who shortly before had made violent complaints on that
account to the Elector Frederick. Indeed, in a copy of this

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 277

letter, he was mentioned by name. Duke George after-
wards demanded satisfaction, but the matter was prolonged
without any result. Luther informs Hartmuth of his
return to Wittenberg, but adds that he does not know how
long he will remain there. He announces to him the por-
tion of his Postills which had just been published, and
states that he had made up his mind to translate the Bible
into German. This, he said, was necessary for him, for it
would show him his mistake in fancying he was a learned
man.

Luther now threw himself into his work in all its
branches. He resumed his academical lectures as well as
the regular preaching in the town church, and he also
preached on week days on the different books of the Bible.
These sermons he continued when, in the following year,
after the death of the old pastor Hems, for whom he had
hitherto acted as deputy, his friend Bugenhagen was ap-
pointed to the living. He and Bugenhagen remained from
now until the latter died, united by personal friendship and
common theological views, and laboured faithfully together
in the service of then* parochial congregation. Bugenhagen,
as town pastor, appears as one of the most prominent
figures in the history of Wittenberg at this time. Luther
assisted him and his congregation with unselfish affection
and friendship, and in turn made confidential use of his
services as pastor and father -confessor.

During the busy times of Lent and Easter, 1522,
Luther had again undertaken duty among the Wittenberg
congregation, and immediately after Easter he visited
Borna, Altenburg, Zwickau, and Eilenburg, where the
people were longing to hear his preaching, and where he
exerted himself to have an evangelical preacher appointed.
His eyes indeed were chiefly fixed on Zwickau, where he
was resolved to counteract finally by his words the conse-
quences of the recent infatuation. According to a report
made by a state official, 25,000 people assembled to hear

278 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

Luther, who preached from a balcony of the town-hall to the
multitude gathered below. At Borna he preached imme-
diately before a visitation held there by the Bishop of Merse-
burg, and again on the day after it. During the following
autumn he also preached several times at Weimar, whither
he had been invited by John, the brother of the Elector
Frederick ; and likewise before the congregation at Erfurt,
to whom during the summer he had addressed an in-

FlG. 27. — BlTGENHAGEN.

From a picture by Cranaeh in his album, (at Berlin,) 1543.

structive exhortation in writing on the subject of the
innovations.

Even at Wittenberg his literary labours, as we have
seen from his letter to Kronberg, were still mainly devoted
to the Bible. In concert with Melancthon, and with the
assistance of other friends, he set about a revision of his
translation of the New Testament. He sent the first sheets
when printed to Spalatin, on May 10, as a ' foretaste of
Our new Bible.' With the aid of three presses the printing

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 279

progressed so rapidly, that already in September the work
was ready for publication. September 21, dedicated to
St. Matthew, is distinguished as the birthday of the German
New Testament. In December already a second edition
was called for, though the price of the book, a florin and a
half, was a high one at that time.

The work was greedily and thankfully pounced upon by
many thousands in all parts of Germany, who had learnt
from Luther to distinguish the ' pure Word of God ' from
the dogmas of the Church, and to honour it accordingly.
Nor could any means more powerful than this be
found of spreading the doctrine thus founded on the
Word of God, and making it the real property of hearers
and readers. All the greater was the danger recognised
herein by those who adhered to ecclesiastical authority
and traditions. Of great significance for both sides are the
words of one of the most violent of Luther's contemporary
opponents, the theologian Cochlaeus : ' Luther's New Testa-
ment was multiplied by the printers in a most wonderful
degree, so that even shoemakers and women, and every and
any lay person acquainted with ehe German type, read it
greedily as the fountain of all truth, and by repeatedly
reading it, impressed it on then memory. By this means
they acquired in a few months so much knowledge, that they
ventured to dispute, not only with Catholic laymen, but
even with masters and doctors of theology, about faith
and the gospel. Luther himself, indeed, had long before
taught that even Christian women, and everyone who had
been baptized, were in truth priests, as much as pope,
bishop, and priests. The crowd of Lutherans gave them-
selves far more trouble in learning the translation of the
Bible than did the Catholics, where the laity left such
matters chiefly to the priests and monks.' The Catholic
authorities immediately issued orders forbidding the book,
and directing it to be delivered up and confiscated. They
hastened also to accuse the translation of a number of pre-

280 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

tended errors and falsifications, which were mostly corrections
of passages mistranslated in the established Latin version
from the words of the original Greek text. Cochlaeus
brought one particular charge against Luther's translation,
that he had ventured to alter the beginning of the Lord's
Prayer in contradiction to the Universal, including the
German Church, and likewise to the original text, by sub-
stituting ' Unser Vater in dem Himmel ' for ' Vater unser,
der du bist im Himmel.' (' Our Father in Heaven,' for
'Our Father which art in Heaven'). When, some years
later, Emser published a rival translation of the New Testa-
ment, it was found to be in great part a transcript of
Luther's, with only a few corrections according to the old
Latin.

Whilst the New Testament was still in the press, Luther
set zealously to work on the Old. Here he encountered
more difficulties, on account of the language ; but he had
long been studying Hebrew with devotion and zeal, and
moreover he could now get the assistance of his new
colleague, Aurogallus, who was especially famous for teach-
ing Hebrew. Before Christinas the five Books of Moses
were ready for press ; these were to be published by them-
selves. In 1524 they were followed by two other parts,
containing the biblical books (according to the present
German order) up to the Song of Solomon. His translation
of the prophets, interrupted by other work, was delayed for
several years.

Nor was Luther's sharp pen long idle against Borne, as
indeed might have been anticipated from his letter to
Kronberg. He found his chief occasion for attack in a
series of new edicts and other measures of the German
bishops against the innovations — the abolition of clerical
celibacy, the transgression of the laws of fasting, and so
on. For this purpose ecclesiastical visitations were under-
taken by the Bishops of Meissen and Merseburg, such as
have already been alluded to when Luther went to Zwickau.

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 281

Luther's sermons against the abuse of Christian liberty
were followed by a small tract entitled ' On the necessity
of avoiding human doctrine.' He did not mean it, as he
said, for those ' bold, intemperate heads ; ' but he wished
to preach Christian liberty to the poor, humble con-
sciences, enslaved by monkish vows and ordinances, that
they might be instructed how, by God's help and with
out danger, to escape and to use their liberty discreetly.
Against the existing Romish episcopacy he declared war to
the knife in a treatise ' Against the Order, falsely called
Spiritual, of Pope and Bishops.' He who had been robbed
of his title of priest and doctor by the displeasure of Pope
and Emperor, and from whom, by Papal bulls, the ' mark
of the beast ' (Rev. xiii. 16) was washed off, confronts the
* popish bishops ' now, as ' by God's grace, preacher at
Wittenberg.'

Luther's further writings against the Romish Churchdom
and dogma do not possess the same interest for us as his
earlier ones, inasmuch as they no longer show the progress
and development of his own views on the Church. In the
violent language he now employs he vents his chief anger
in complaining that he, and the truth he represented, ' had
been condemned unheard — an unexampled proceeding — un-
refuted, and in headlong and criminal haste.'

With reference to the attack he had made on the
' episcopal masqueraders ' in the tract above mentioned,
Luther remarked in a letter to Spalatin on July 26 that
he had purposely been so sharp in it, because he saw how
vainly he had humbled himself, yielded, prayed and com-
plained. And he added that he would just as little flatter
the King of England.

King Henry VIII., who later on, for other reasons, broke
so entirely with the Church of Rome and began reforms
after his own fashion, had at that time gained for himself
from the Pope the title of ' Defender of the Faith,' on
account of a learned scholastic treatise against Luther's

282 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

' Babylonish Captivity.' This treatise had made such a
stir, that Luther thought it expedient to answer it in one
of his own. The latter, originally written in Latin, gives a
carefully considered explanation of the points of doctrine
at issue, and proceeds to prove the propositions he had
previously advanced. He points out fundamental, and,
indeed, irreconcilable variance between his principles and
those of the King, by showing how he, Luther, fought
for freedom and established it, while the King, on the
contrary, took up the cudgels for captivity, without even
attempting to justify it by argument, but simply kept
talking of what it consists of, and how people must be con-
tent to remain in it. In fact, the whole book was a mere
reiteration of the dogmas of ecclesiastical authorities, of
the Councils, and of tradition, always taking it for granted
that these dare not be disputed. ' I do not need,' says
Luther, ' the King to teach me this.' But the personal
tone adopted by Luther against Henry went beyond any-
thing that his expressions to Spalatin might have led one
to expect, and was even more marked in a German edition
of his treatise, which he published after the royal one had
been translated into German. The King had, moreover,
set the example of abuse, as coarse and defiant as that of
his opponent. Luther did not shrink from an incidental
remark al the expense of other princes. ' King Henry,' he
says, ' must help to prove the truth of the proverb, that
there are no greater fools than kings and princes.'

But the most important among the works which Luther
was now led to undertake by his opposition to the Bomish
Church and her teaching, and by her hostile proceedings
against himself, was a treatise on the secular power, which
he began in December, as soon as he had finished the
translation of the five Books of Moses. It appeared under
the title of * On the Secular Power, and how far obedience is
due to it.'

How far obedience is due to it ? This was the question

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE AT WITTENBERG. 283

provoked by the commands and threats of punishment
with which Catholic princes were now endeavouring to aid
the spiritual power in suppressing the gospel, the writings
on reform, and especially the new translation of the Bible.
The question was, how far a Christian was bound to obey.

Nor had Luther to step forward less decisively as the
champion of the rights, the Divine authority, and the dignity
of the civil power, against the pretensions of the Catholic
Church. Words of Jesus such as these lay before him :
1 But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil : but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also.' How could these words be reconciled with the fact that
the secular arm resisted wrong with force, and raised the sword
against the evil-doer ? The Church of the middle ages and
the School theology maintained that these words were not
general moral commands for all Christians, but merely
advice for those among them who wished to attain a higher
degree of perfection. Hereby the whole civil government
with its authorities was assigned a lower grade of ordi-
nary morality, whilst higher morality or true perfection was
to be represented in the priestly office and monasticism.
On the other hand, friends of Luther, ere now, while taking
note that Christ had spoken these words direct to all his
disciples, and therefore to all Christians, had been troubled
to know how to establish, with regard to Christians, the
rights and duties of temporal power.

With respect to this second point in particular Luther
now gives his explanation. Those words of Christ were un-
questionably commands for all Christians. They demand of
every Christian that he should never on his own account
grasp the sword and employ force ; and if only the world
were full of good Christians there would be no need of the
sword of secular authority. But it is necessary to w7ield it
against evil for the general welfare, to punish sin and to
preserve the peace ; and therefore the true Christian, in or-
'*er thereby to serve his neighbour, must willingly submit to

284 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

the rule of this sword, and, if God assigns him an office, must
wield this sword himself. This command of Scripture is
confirmed by other passages, as for instance by the words
of the Apostle : ' Let every soul be subject unto the higher
powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that
be are ordained of God. For he is the minister of God to
thee for good . . . for he beareth not the sword in vain.'
(Eomans xiii.). Luther thus ranks the vocation of civil
government together with the other vocations of moral life
in the world. They are all, he said, instituted by God, and all
of them, no less than the so-called priestly office, are intended
and able to serve God and one's neighbour. These w7ere ideas
which laid the foundation for a new Christian estimate of
political, civic, and temporal life in general. Thus, later on,
the Augsburg Confession rejected the doctrine that to attain
evangelical perfection, a man must renounce his wTorldly
calling, as also the theory of the Anabaptists, who would
allow no Christian to hold civil office or to wield the sword.
But Luther, while thus determining the province of
secular authority, took care to impose limits on its juris-
diction, and to guard against those limits being invaded.
The true spiritual government, as instituted by Christ, was
intended to make men good, by working upon the soul by
the Word, in the power of the Spirit. The temporal
government, whose duty it was to secure external peace and
order, and to protect men against evil-doers, extends only to
'what is external upon earth,' — over person and property.
1 For God cannot and will not allow anyone but Himself
alone to rule the soul.' — ' No one can or shall force another
to believe.' — ' True is the proverb : " Thoughts are free of
taxes."' We must 'obey God rather than man,' as St.
Peter says : these words impose a limit on temporal power.
Luther is aware of the objection, that the temporal power
does not force a man to believe, but only outwardly guards
against heretics, to prevent them from leading the people
astray with false doctrines. But he answers : ' Such an

LUTHER'S RE-APPEARANCE" AT WITTENBERG. 285

office belongs to bishops, and not to princes. God's Word
must here contend for mastery. Heresy is something spiri-
tual, that cannot be hewn with steel nor burned with fire.'
And among these invasions of the province and office of
the Word, Luther includes the edict to confiscate books.
Herein must subjects obey God rather than such tyrannical
princes. They are to leave the exercise of outward power,
even in this matter, to the civil authorities, they must never
venture to oppose them by force ; they must suffjer it, if
men invade their houses, and take away their books or
property. But if they attempt to rob them of their Bible,
they must not surrender a page or a letter.

These are the most powerful and comprehensive utter-
ances which we possess from the mouth of the Reformer,
about the demarcation of these provinces of authority, the
independent operation of the Word and the Spirit, and
liberty of conscience. It is doubtful, indeed, how far they
are consonant with those measures which he afterwards
found admissible and advisable for the protection of evan-
gelical communities and evangelical truth against those who
attempted to lead them astray.

Amidst such active labours the year of Luther's return
to Wittenberg passed away.

286 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

CHAPTER IV.

LUTHER AND HIS ANTI- CATHOLIC WORK OF REFORMATION,

UP TO 1525

Luther, as we have seen, was able to prosecute his labours
at Wittenberg, undisturbed by the act of the Diet. In
other parts of Germany as well, the imperial power left
wide scope for the spread of his teaching. At the next
approaching Diet at Nuremberg no majority could be looked
for again, to give effect to the consequences demanded by
the Edict of Worms. Any such expectation was the more
futile, from the results, already experienced, of Luther's re-
appearance in public.

The new Pope, Hadrian VI., whilst adhering strictly
to the doctrines of mediaeval Scholasticism and of Church
authority, nevertheless, by his honest avowal of eccle-
siastical abuses, and the firmness and earnestness of his
personal character, led men to expect a new era of
energetic reform for the Ptomish Church, at least in regard
to the discipline of the clergy and monks, and to a
conscientious restraint of Church ordinances, so that
even men like Erasmus might rest content. And yet,
he was the very one who sought now to stamp out with all
severity the Lutheran heresy and its innovations. With
this object he broke out into low abuse and slander against
Luther personally, as a drunkard and a debauchee. Libels
of this kind were perpetually repeated by the Piomanists,
and no doubt Hadrian believed them, though Luther did
not trouble himself much about such personal attacks, but
in his letters to Spalatin, simply called the Pope an ass.

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 287

Hadrian also, like so many Romish Churchmen after him,
was extremely zealous to impress upon princes that he who
despises the sacred decrees and the heads of the Church,
would cease to respect a temporal throne.

But the Diet which assembled at Nuremberg in the
winter of 1522-23, replied to the demands of the Pope
by renewing the old grievances of the German nation,
and insisting on a free Christian Council, to be held in
Germany.

Nor did even an unfortunate military enterprise, under-
taken at this time against the Archbishop of Treves by
Sickingen, who, while fighting for his own power and the
interests of the German nobles, announced his wish also to
break road for the Gospel, produce those disastrous results
for the evangelical cause in Germany which its enemies had
anticipated and hoped for. Sickingen, indeed, after being
defeated by the superior forces of the allied princes, died
of the wounds he received, but it was as clear as noonday
that Frederick the Wise and his evangelical theologians had
had nothing to do with his act of violence. Luther, on
hearing of Sickingen's enterprise, remarked that it would
be ' a very bad business,' and added, on learning the issue,
' God is a just, but a marvellous judge.'

The next meeting of the Diet, from whom, after Hadrian's
early death, his successor, Clement VII. — another modern
Pope of Leo's way of thinking — demanded anew the execu-
tion of the Edict of Worms, resulted in the imperial decree
of April 18, 1524. By this, the states of the Empire agreed
to execute that edict ' as far as possible,' but stipulated that
the Lutheran and the other new doctrines should first be
1 examined with the utmost diligence,' and, together with
the grievances presented by the princes against the Pope
and the hierarchy, should be made the subject of a repre-
sentation to the Council now demanded. But the inconsis-
tency that lurked in this decree caught Luther's eye and
aroused his suspicion. It was scandalous, he declared in a

288 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

paper upon it, that the Emperor and the princes should
issue ' contradictory orders.' They were going to deal
with him according to the Edict of Worms, and proclaim
him a condemned man, and persecute him, and at the same
moment wait to decide what was good or bad in his doc-
trines. But the decree was, in fact, a subterfuge, by which
they resigned the idea of executing that edict. The Lord's
Supper could be celebrated at Nuremberg in the new way
before the eyes of the whole Diet. Well might Frederick
the Wise hope that men would still, at least in Germany,
come gradually to agree in peace about the truth contained
in Luther's preaching.

The absent Emperor, indeed, remained insensible to all
such influences. In the Netherlands strict penal laws were
in force. In a letter addressed to the German Empire he
condemned the decree of Nuremberg, and, like Hadrian,
compared Luther to Mahomet. Further, a minority of the
German princes, including, in particular, Ferdinand of
Austria, and the Dukes William and Louis of Bavaria,
entered into a league at Ratisbon to execute the Edict of
Worms, while agreeing to certain reforms in the Church,
according to a Papal scheme proposed by his nuncio Cam-
peggio. They too began to persecute and punish the
heretics.

Thus, then, the seed sown by Luther began to germinate
throughout the whole of Germany. The number of Lutheran
preachers increased, and requests were made in many places
for their services. Even Cochlseus had to confess that, how-
ever bad were their ultimate objects, they showed a remark-
able unselfishness and industry in their calling, and that they
avoided even the appearance of pushing themselves forward
in an irregular and arbitrary manner, waiting rather for their
appointment in due course by the nobles or the various
congregations. Among the treatises and other writings on
ecclesiastical and religious questions which inundated Ger-
many at that time, at least ten were written on the Lutheran,

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 289

to one on the Romish side. The complaint was that there
were not more numerous and better qualified printers for
the work.

Among the nobles who espoused the cause of Luther,
the support of Albert of Mansfeld, one of the Counts of
Luther's native place, was particularly grateful. It was
mainly by the nobles that the movement was represented
in Austria.

But the gospel gained most ground in German towns,
especially among the burgher class in the free cities of the
Empire. Preachers were invited hither, where none already
existed, and the mass was publicly abolished. This took
place during 1523 and 1524 at Magdeburg, Frankfort-on-
the-Main, Schwabish Hall, Nuremberg, Ulm, Strasburg,
Breslau, and Bremen. On Saxon territory also, Lutheran
congregations were formed in various towns, such as Zwic-
kau, Altenburg, and Eisenach. In many cases Luther's
personal friends took part in the movement, and thus
cemented more closely their friendship with the Reformer.
He had already some trusted fellow-labourers at Nuremberg.
At Magdeburg his friend Amsdorf was pastor. Hess, the
first evangelical pastor of Breslau, had formed some years
earlier a warm friendship with him and Melancthon. Link,
his old friend, and the successor of Staupitz as Vicar-General
of the Augustines, held office as a preacher at Altenburg,
whence he was recalled, for the same purpose, in 1525,
to Nuremberg, his former place of residence. Wherever
Luther heard of evangelical communities who seemed to
need especial help for their strengthening or consolation
under trouble, he addressed to them letters, which were after-
wards circulated in print. These were sent, for instance, to
Esslingen, Augsburg, Worms ; also to his ' beloved friends
in Christ ' at Wittenberg, who had been harassed by the
Romanists, and whose cause he pleaded to the Archbishop
Albert. With particular joy he sen. greetings to the ' chosen
and dear friends in God ' in the distant towns of Riga,

u

290 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

Reval, and Dorpat; and he sent them also an exposition
of the 127th Psalm.

The Word, rejected and condemned as it had been by
bishops and priests in Germany, met with singular success
beyond the eastern boundary of the Empire, among the
Order of Teutonic Knights in Prussia. The Grand Master
of the Order, Albert of Brandenburg, brother of the Elector
of Brandenburg, and cousin of Albert, the Archbishop and
Cardinal, had kept up communication with Luther, both
orally and by letter, and had been advised by him and
Melancthon to make himself familiar with the gospel and
the principles of the Evangelical Church. And, above all,
there were here two bishops who espoused the new teaching,
and who were anxious to tend the flocks committed to their
charge as true evangelical bishops or overseers, in the
sense insisted on by Luther, and particularly to minister to
the Word by preaching and by the care of souls. These
were George of Polenz, Bishop of Samland since 1523, and
Erhard of Queiss, Bishop of Pomerania since 1524. The
members of the Order, almost without exception, were on
their side : they resolved to establish a temporal princedom
in Prussia and to renounce their vows of ' false chastity and
spirituality.' The King of Poland, under whose suzerainty
the country had long been, solemnly invested the hitherto
Grand Master on April 10, 1525, as hereditary Duke of
Prussia. Thus Prussia became the first territory that
collectively embraced the Eeformation, whilst as yet, even
in the Electorate of Saxony, no general measures had been
taken in its support. It became, in short, the first Protestant
country. Luther wrote to the new Duke : ' I am greatly
rejoiced that Almighty God has so graciously and wondrously
helped your princely Grace to attain such an eminent
position, and further my wish is that the same merciful
God may continue His blessing to your Grace through life,
for the benefit and godly welfare of the whole country.'
And to the Archbishop Albert he held the new Duke up as

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 291

a shining example, in saying of him, ' How graciously has God
sent such a change, as, ten years ago, could not have been
hoped for or believed in, even had ten Isaiahs and Pauls an-
nounced it. But because he gave room and honour to the
gospel, the gospel in return has given him far more room
and honour — more than he could have dared to wish for.'

The gospel now received its first testimony in blood.
With joyful confidence Luther beheld what God had done,
but could «not refrain from lamenting, with sorrowful
humility, that he himself had not been found worthy of
martyrdom. In the Imperial hereditary lands, where for
some years missionaries, chiefly members of Luther's own
Augustine Order, had been actively labouring in the strength
of the convictions derived from Wittenberg, two young
Augustine monks, Henry Voes and John Esch, were publicly
burnt, on July 1, 1523, as heretics. Luther thereupon
addressed a letter to ' the beloved Christians in Holland,
Brabant, and Flanders,' praising God for His wondrous
light, that He had caused again to dawn. He spoke out
even stronger in some verses in which he celebrated the
young martyrs ; they were published no doubt originally as
a broadsheet :

A new song will we raise to Him

Who ruleth, God our Lord;

And we will sing what God hath done,

In honour of His Word.

At Brussels in the Netherlands,

It was through two young lads,

He hath made known His Wonders, &c.

They conclude as follows : —

So let us thank our God to see

His Word returned at last.

The Summer now is at the door,

The Winter is forepast,

The tender flowerets bloom anew,

292 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

And He, who hath begun,

Will give His work a happy end.

He was, later on, deeply grieved by the death of his
brother- Augustine and friend Henry Moller of Zutphen,
who, after having been forced to fly from the Netherlands,
had begun a blessed work at Bremen, and was now murdered
in the most brutal • manner on December 11, 1524, by a
mob instigated by monks, near Meldorf, whither he had
gone in response to an invitation from some of his com-
panions in the faith. Luther informed his Christian
brethren in a circular of the end of this ' blessed brother '
and * Evangelist.' He mentions, with him, the two martyrs
of Brussels, as well as other disciples of the new doctrine ;
one Caspar Tauber, who was executed at Vienna, a book-
seller named Georg, who was burnt at Pesth, and one who
had been recently burnt at Prague. ' These and such as
these,' he adds, ' are they whose blood will drown the
popedom, together with its god, the devil.'

With regard to his work of reformation, which had now
spread so widely and found so many coadjutors, Luther
at present thought as little about the outward constitution
of a new Church as he had thought about any outward
organisation of the war itself, or an external alliance of his
adherents, or of a cleverly devised propaganda. Just as
here the simple Word was to achieve the victory, so his whole
efforts were devoted solely to restoring to the congregations
the possession and enjoyment of that Word in all its purity,
that they might gather round it, and be thereby further
edified, sustained, and guided.

Wherever this privilege was denied to Christians, Luther
claimed for them the right, by virtue of their universal
priesthood, to ordain a priest for themselves, and to reject
the ensnaring deceits of mere human doctrine. He declared
himself to this effect, in a treatise written in 1523, and
intended in the first instance for the Bohemians — that

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 293

is to say, for the so-called Utraquists who were then
the leading party in Bohemia. These sectaries, whose
only ground of estrangement from Eome was the question
of administering the cup to the laity, and who had never
thought of separating themselves from the so-called Apos-
tolical succession of the episcopate in the Catholic Church,
Luther then hoped, albeit in vain, to win over to a genuine
evangelical belief and practice of religion. In this treatise
he went a step beyond the election of pastors by their
congregations, by maintaining that a whole district, com-
posed of such evangelical communities, might appoint
their own overseer, who should exercise control over them,
until the final establishment of a supreme bishopric, of an
evangelical character, for the entire nation al Church. But
of any such ecclesiastical edifice for Germany, wholly
absorbed as he was in her immediate needs, he had not
yet said a word. Congregations of such a kind, and suit-
able for such a purpose, could only be created by preaching
the Word ; nor had Luther yet abandoned the hope that
the existing German episcopate, as already had been the
case in Prussia, would accept an evangelical reconstruction
on a much larger scale. "With regard to individual congre-
gations, moreover, it was the opinion of Luther and his
friends that, where the local magistrates and patrons of
the Church were inclined to the gospel, the appointment of
pastors might be made by them in a regular way. A
separation of civil communities, each represented by theii
own magistrate, from the ecclesiastical or religious units,
was an idea wholly foreign to that time.

That the word of God should be preached to the various
congregations in a pure and earnest manner, that those
congregations themselves should be entrusted with the
work, should make it their own, and, in reliance thereon,
should lift up their hearts to God with prayer, supplication,
and thanksgiving, -this was the fixed object which Luther
held in view in all the regulations which he made at

294 6X1LE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

Wittenberg, and wished to institute in other places. In this
spirit he advanced cautiously and by degrees in the changes
introduced in public worship,— changes which, as he admits,
he had commenced with fear and hesitation. ' That the
Word itself,' he says, ' should advance mightily among
Christians, is shown by the whole of Scripture, and Christ
Himself says (Luke x.) that "one thing is needful," namely,
that Mary should sit at the feet of Christ, and hear His
Word daily. His Word endures for ever, and all else must
melt away before it, however much Martha may have to
do.' He points out as one of the great abuses of the old
system of worship, that the people had to keep silence
about the Word, while all the time they had to accept un-
christian fables and falsehoods in what was read, and
sung, and preached in the churches, and to perform public
worship as a work which should entitle them to the grace
of God. He now set vigorously about separating the mere
furniture of worship. As to the Word itself, on the contrary,
he was anxious to have it preached to the congregation,
wherever possible, every Sunday morning and evening, and
on week-days, at least to the students and others, who desired
to hear it : this was actually done at Wittenberg. Innova-
tions, not apparently required by his principles, he shunned
himself, and warned others to do so likewise. Nor was he
less diligent to guard against the danger of having the
new forms of worship, now practised at Wittenberg, made
into a law for all evangelical brethren without distinction.
He gave an account and estimate of them in the form of a
letter to his friend Hausmann, the priest at Zwickau, ' con-
juring ' his readers ' from his very heart, for Christ's sake,'
that if anyone saw plainly a better way in these matters,
he should make it known. No one, he declared, durst con-
demn or despise different forms practised by others. Out-
ward customs and ceremonies were, indeed, indispensable, but
they served as little to commend us to God, as meat or drink
(1 Cor. viii. 8) served to make us well pleasing before Him.

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 295

In order to enable the congregations themselves to take
an active part in the service, he now longed for genuine
Church hymns, that is to say, songs composed in the noble
popular language, verse, and melody. He invited friends to
paraphrase the Psalms for this purpose ; he had not suffi-
cient confidence in himself for the work. And yet he was
the first to attempt it. With fresh impulse and with the
exuberance of true poetical genius, his verses on the Brussels
martyrs had flowed forth spontaneously from his inmost
soul. They were the first, so far as we know, that Luther
had ever written, though he was now forty years of age.
With the same poetic impulse he composed, probably shortly
after, a hymn in praise of the ' highest blessing ' that God
had shown towards us in the sacrifice of His beloved Son.

Eejoice ye now, dear Christians all,

And let us leap for joy,

And dare with trustful, loving hearts,

Our praises to employ,

And sing what God hath shown to man,

His sweet and wondrous deed,

And tell how dearly He hath won. etc.

The full tone of a powerful, fresh, often uncouth, but very
tender popular ballad no other writer of the time displayed
like Luther. And whilst seeking to compose or re-arrange
hymns for congregational use in church, he now busied
himself with the Psalter, paraphrasing its contents in an
evangelical spirit and in German metre.

Thus now, early in 1524, there appeared at Wittenberg
the first German hymn-book, consisting at first, of only eight
hymns, about half of them, such as that beginning Nun
freut euch, being original compositions of Luther, and three
others adapted from the Psalms. In the course of the same
year he brought out a further collection of twenty hymns,
written by himself for the evangelical congregation there :
among these is the one on the Brussels martyrs. It was, in

296 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

fact, the year in which German hymnody was born,
Luther soon found the coadjutors he had wished for.

These twenty- four hymns by Luther were followed in
after years by only twelve more from his own pen, among
the latter being his grand hymn, Ein feste Burg ist wiser
Gott, written probably in 1527. Of these later compositions,
comparatively few expressed entirely his own ideas ; most
of them had reference to subjects already in the possession
and use of the Christian world, and of German Christians
in particular ; that is to say, some referred to the Psalms
and other portions of the Bible, others to parts of the
Catechism, others again to short German ballads, sung by
the people, and even to old Latin hymns. In all of them
he was governed by a strict regard to what was both purely
evangelical, and also suitable for the common worship of
God. And yet they differ widely, one from another, in the
poetical form and manner in which he now gives utterance
to the longings of the heart for God, now seeks to clothe in
verse suited for congregational singing words of belief and
doctrine, now keeps closely to his immediate subject, now
vents his emotions freely in Christian sentiments and
poetical form, as for example in Ein' feste Burg, the most
sublime and powerful production of them all.

The new hymns went forth in town and country, in
churches and homes, throughout the land. Often, far more
than any sermons could have done, they brought home to
ears and hearts the Word of evangelical truth. They
became weapons of war, as well as means of edification and
comfort.

In his preface to a small collection of songs, which
Luther had published in the same year, he remarks : ' I am
not of opinion that the gospel should be employed to strike
down and destroy all the arts, as certain high ecclesiastics
would have it. I would rather that all the arts, and
especially music, should be employed in the service of Him
-who has created them and given them to man.' What he says

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 297

here about music and poetry, he applied equally to all
departments of knowledge. He saw art and learning now
menaced by wrong-minded enthusiasts. For this reason he
was particularly anxious that they should be cultivated in
the schools.

With great zeal he directed his counsels to the general
duty of caring for the good education and instruction of
the young, as indeed he had done some time before in his
address to the German Nobility. These, above all, he said,
must be rescued from the clutches of Satan. He had again
in his mind schools for girls. Thus in 1523 he recom-
mended the conversion of the cloisters of the Mendicant
Orders into schools ' for boys and girls.' The same advice
was offered by Eberlin, already mentioned, who was then
living at Wittenberg, and who made the suggestion to the
magistrates of Ulm.

But Luther's chief advice was directed to the require-
ments of the Church and the State, or ' temporal govern-
ment,' which assuredly were then in need of educated and
well-cultured servants. For the training here required, the
ancient languages, Latin and Greek, were indispensable, and
for the ministers of the Church, Greek and Hebrew in par-
ticular, as the languages in which the Word of God wTas
originally conveyed to man. ' Languages,' he says, ' are
the sheaths which enclose the sword of the Spirit, the
shrine in which this treasure is carried, the vessel which
contains this drink.' He insisted further on the study of
history, and especially of that of Germany. It was a
matter of regret to him that so little had been done towards
writing the history of Germany, whilst the Greeks, the
Romans, and the Hebrews had compiled theirs with such
industry. ' 0 ! how many good histories and sayings,' he
remarked, ' we ought to have in our possession, of all that
has been done and said in different parts of Germany, and
of which we know nothing. That is why, in other coun-
tries, people know nothing about us Germans, and all

298 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

the world calls us German beasts, who can do nothing but
fight, and guzzle, and drink.' Such were his opinions, as
given in 1524, in a public letter ' To the Councillors of
all the States of Germany; an appeal to institute and
maintain Christian schools.'

The enthusiasm which had recently inspired young men of
talent and ambition to study and imitate the ancient classics,
and had banded together the leading teachers of Humanism,
very quickly died away. The universities everywhere were
less frequented. Enemies of Luther ascribed this to the
influence of his doctrines, though matters were little better
where his doctrines were repudiated. It is not, indeed,
surprising that the Humanist movement, with its regard for
formal culture and aesthetic enjoyment, and its aristocracy
of intellect, should retire perforce before the supreme
struggle, involving the highest issues and interests of life,
which was now being waged by the German people and the
Church. A further cause of this decline of academical
studies was to be found, no doubt, in the vigorous, and some-
what giddy bound taken by trade and commerce in those
days of increased communication and extensive geographical
discovery, and in the striving after material gain and enjoy-
ment, which seemed to find satisfaction in other ways more
easily and rapidly than by learned industry and the pursuit of
culture. It was from these quarters that came the complaints
against the great merchants' houses, the usury, the rise in
prices, the luxury and extravagance of the age, — complaints
which were re-echoed alike by the friends and foes of the Ee-
formation. The Eeformers themselves fully recognised the
thanks they owed to those Humanistic studies, and their
permanent value for Church and State. In the new church
regulations introduced in the towns and districts which
accepted the evangelical teaching, the school system then
played a prominent part. Nuremberg, some years after, was
among the most active to establish a good high school.
Luther himself went in April 1525 with Melancthon to his

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 299

native place Eisleben, to assist in promoting a school,
founded there by Count Albert of Mansfeld : his friend
Agricola was the head master.

Thus we see that the work of planting and building
occupied Luther at this time more than the contest with his
old opponents. Well might he, as he says in his hymn,
rejoice to see the spring-tide and the flowers, and hope for
a rich summer.

On the other hand, not only did the adherents of the
old system knit their ranks together more closely, and, like
the confederates of Eatisbon in 1524, profess their desire
to do something at least to satisfy the general complaint of
the corruption of the Church; but men even, who from
their undeniably deep and earnest striving for religion,
seemed originally called to take part in the work and war,
now separated themselves from Luther and his associates,
not venturing to break free from the bonds of old ecclesias-
tical tradition. Still more was this the case with men of
Humanistic culture, whose temporary alliance with Luther
had been dictated more by the interest they felt in the
arts and letters threatened by the old monastic spirit, and
by the open scandal caused by the outrageous abuses of the
clergy and monachism, than by any sympathy with his
religious principles and ideas. And to those who wavered
in so momentous a decision, and shrank back from it and
the contests it involved, there was plenty in what they
observed among Luther's adherents, to give them occasion
for still further reflection. It was not to be denied that,
sharply as Luther had reproved the conduct of the Witten-
berg innovators, the new preaching gave rise among excited
multitudes, in many places, to disturbance, disorder, and
acts of violence against obstinate monks and priests ; and all
this was held up as a proof of what the consequences must
be of a general dissolution of religious ties. The desertion
of their convents by monks and nuns, ostensibly on the
ground of their newly-proclaimed liberty, but in reality, for

3oo EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

the most part, as was alleged against them by the Catholics,
for the sake of carnal freedom, was denounced with no small
severity by Luther himself ; but, in so doing, he recalled to
mind the fact, that equally low interests had led them into
the convents, and that the cloisters also, after their fashion,
indulged in the ' worship of the belly.' Luther was just as
indignant that the great majority of those who refused to be
robbed any longer of their money and goods at the demand
and by the deceits of the Papal Church, now withheld them
both from serving the objects of Christian love and benevo-
lence, which they were all the more called on to promote.
The enemies of the new doctrine began already to charge
against it that Jie faith, which was supposed to make men
so blessed, bore so little good fruit. Lastly, there were many
honest- minded men, and many, also, who looked about for an
excuse for abstaining from the battle, whom Luther's per-
sonal participation in the din and clamour of the fray served
to scandalise, if not to alienate from his cause. Thus among
those who had formerly been united by a common endea-
vour to improve the condition of the Church and repel the
tyranny of Rome, a crisis had now begun.

Of all who drew back from Luther's work of reformation,
none had been more intimately attached to him than his
spiritual father, Staupitz. And this intimacy he retained
as Abbot of Salzburg. In his view, nothing of all the ex-
ternal matters to which the Reformation was directed,
seemed so important as to warrant the endangerment of re-
ligious concord and unity in the Church. Luther expressed
to him the sorrow he felt at his estrangement, while renew-
ing, at the same time, his assurance of unalterable affection
and gratitude. Staupitz himself felt unhappy in his
attitude and position. But even as abbot, and in tne
proximity of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a man of very
different views and temperament to himself, he remained
true to his doctrine of Faith, as being the only means of
salvation and the root of all goodness. And the very

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 301

last year of his life, in a letter to Luther, recommending to
him a young theologian who was about to further his
education at Wittenberg, he assured him of his unchanging
love, ' passing the love of women ' (2 Sam. i. 26), and grate-
fully acknowledged how his beloved Martin had first led him
away ' to the living pastures from the husks for the pigs.'
Luther gave a friendly welcome to the young man recom-
mended to his care, and assisted him in gaining the desired
degree of Master of Philosophy. This is the last that we
hear of the intercourse between these two friends. On
December 28, 1524, Staupitz died from a fit of apoplexy.

The earlier acquaintance between the Reformer and the
great Humanist, Erasmus, had now developed into an
irreconcilable enmity. The latter had long been unable to
refrain from venting, in private and public utterances, his
dissatisfaction and bitterness at the storm aroused by
Luther, which was distracting the Church and disturbing
quiet study. Patrons of his in high places — above all, King
Henry VIII. of England — urged him to take up the cause
of the Church against Luther in a pamphlet ; and, difficult
as he felt it to take a prominent part in such a contest, he
was the less able to decline their overtures, since other
Churchmen were reproaching him with having furthered by
his earlier writings the pernicious movement. He chose a
subject which would enable him, at any rate, while attacking
Luther, to represent his own personal convictions, and to
reckon on the concurrence not only of Romish zealots but
also of a number of his Humanist friends, and even many
men of deeply moral and religious disposition. Luther, it
will be remembered, had told him plainly from the first that
he knew too little of the grace of God. which alone could
give salvation to sinners, and strength and ability to the
good. Erasmus now retorted by his diatribe ' On Free
Will,' by virtue whereof, he said, man was able and was
bound to procure his own blessing and final happiness.

Luther, on perusing this treatise, in September 1524,

302 EXILE, RETURN, AMD MARRIAGE.

was struck with the feebleness of its contents. So far,
indeed, from defining the operation of the human will,
Erasmus floated vaguely about in loose and incoherent pro-
positions, evidently not from want of extreme care and
circumspection, but from the fact that, in this province of
antiquarian research, he failed in the necessary acuteness
and depth of observation and thought. He declared him-
self ready to yield obedience to all decisions of the Church,
but without expressing any opinion as to the real infallibility
of an ecclesiastical tribunal. Throughout his whole treatise,
however, there were personal thrusts at his enemy.

Luther, as he said, only wished to answer this diatribe
out of regard to the position enjoyed by its author, and,
from his sheer aversion to the book, for a long while post-
poned his reply. We shall see moreover, very shortly, what
other pressing duties and events engrossed his attention for
some time after. It was not until a year had elapsed, that
his reply appeared, entitled ' On the Bondage of the Will.'
Herein he pushes the propositions to which Erasmus took
exception to their logical conclusion. Free Will, as it is
called, has always been subject to the supremacy of a higher
Power ; with unredeemed sinners to the power of the devil ;
with the redeemed, to the saving, sanctifying, and shelter-
ing Hand of God. For the latter, salvation is assured by
His Almighty and grace-conferring Will. The fact that in
other sinners no such conversion to God and to a redeem-
ing faith in His Word is effected, can only be ascribed to
the inscrutable Will of God Himself, nor durst man dispute
thereon with his Maker. Luther in this went tether than
did afterwards the Evangelical Church that bears his name.
And even he, later on, abstained himself and warned others
to abstain from discussing such Divine mysteries and
questions connected with them. But as for Erasmus, he
never ceased to regard him as one who, from his superficial
worldliness, was blind to the highest truth of salvation

In respect to the battle against Catholic Churchdom and

FURTHER WORK OF REFORMATION. 30^.

dogma, the controversy between Luther and Erasmus pre-
sents no new issue or further development. But in company
with their old master, other Humanists also, the leading
champions of the general culture of the age, dissociated
themselves from Luther, and returned, as his enemies, to
their allegiance to the traditional system of the Church.
Next to Erasmus, the most important of these men was
Pirkheimer of Nuremberg, to whom we have already
referred

3-J4 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

CHAPTEK V.

THE REFORMER AGAINST THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS

UP TO 1525.

In his new as in his old contests, Luther's experiences
remained such as he described them to Hartmuth of
Kronberg, on his return to Wittenberg. ' All my enemies,
near as they have reached me, have not hit me as hard as
I have now been hit by our own people.'

At first, indeed, Carlstadt kept silent, and continued
quietly, till Easter 1523, his lectures at the university.
But inwardly he was inclined to a mysticism resembling
that of the Zwickau fanatics, and imbibed, like theirs,
from mediseval writings ; and he too, soon turned, with
these views, to new and practical projects of reform.

He now began to unfold in writing his ideas of a true
union of the soul with God. He too explained how the
souls of all creatures should empty themselves, so to speak,
and prepare themselves in absolute passiveness, in 'in-
action and lassitude,' for a glorified state. His profession
of learning, and his academical and clerical dignities he
resigned, as ministering to vanity. He bought a small
property near "Wittenberg, and repaired thither to live as a
layman and peasant. He wore a peasant's coat, and mixed
with the other peasants as ' Neighbour Andrew.' Luther
saw him there, standing with bare feet amid heaps of
manure, and loading it on a cart.

He found a place for the exercise of his new work in
the church at Orlamunde on the Saale, above Jena. This
parish, like several others, had been incorporated with the

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 305

university at Wittenberg, and its revenues formed part of
its endowment, being specially attached to the archdeaconry
of the Convent Church, which was united with Carlstadt's
professorship. The living there, with most of its emolu-
ments, had passed accordingly to Carlstadt, but the office
of pastor could only be performed by vicars, as they were
called, regularly nominated, and appointed by the Elector.
Carlstadt now took advantage of a vacancy in the office, to
go on his own authority as pastor to Orlamiinde, without
wishing to resign his appointment and its pay at Witten-
berg. By his preaching and personal influence he soon
won over the local congregation to his side, and ended by
gaining as great an influence here as he had done at
Wittenberg. Here also the images were abolished and
destroyed, crucifixes and other representations of Christ
no less than images of the saints. Carlstadt now openly
declared that no respect was to be paid to any local
authority, nor any regard to other congregations ; they
were to execute freely the commands of God, and whatever
was contrary to God, they were to cast down and hew to
pieces. And in interpreting and applying these commands
of God he went to more extravagant lengths than ever.
Must not the letter of the Old Testament be the law for
other things as well as images ? Acting on this idea, he
demanded that Sunday should be observed with rest in all
the Mosaic rigour of the term ; this rest he identified with
that ' inaction,' which formed his idea of true union with
God. He proceeded then to advocate polygamy, as per-
mitted to the Jews in the Old Testament : he actually
advised an inhabitant of Orlamiinde to take a second wife,
in addition to the one then living. He began, at the same
time, to dispute the real presence of the Body and Blood of
Christ in the Sacrament — a doctrine which Luther stead-
fastly insisted on in his contest with the Catholic doctrine
of Transubstantiation. By an extraordinary perversion, as
is evident at a glance, of the meaning of Christ's words of

x

$o6 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

institution, he maintained that when our Saviour said
' This is My Body,' — alluding, of course, to the bread which
He was then distributing, He was not referring to the bread
at all, but only to His own body, as He stood there.

The inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Kahla
were seized with the same spirit. These mystical ideas
and phrases assumed strange forms of expression among
the common people, who jumbled together in wild confusion
the supernatural and the material. Carlstadt kept up also
a secret correspondence with Miinzer.

The question of the authority of the Old Testament
soon took a wider range. It seemed to be one of the
authority of Scripture in general, which was contended
for against the Papists. If the authority of God's Word in
the Old Testament applied to the whole domain of civil
life, should it not equally apply, as against particular
regulations established by civil society ? On these prin-
ciples, for example, all taking of interest, as well as usury,
was declared to be forbidden, just as it had been forbidden
to God's people of old. A restoration of the Mosaic year
of Jubilee was even talked of, when after fifty years all land
which had passed into other hands should revert to its
original owners. With eagerness the people took up these
new ideas of social reform, so specious and so full of
promises. The evangelical and earnest preacher, Strauss
at Eisenach, worked zealously with word and pen in this
direction. Even a court-preacher of Duke John, Wolfgang
Stein at Weimar, espoused the movement.

Meanwhile Miinzer came again to Central Germany.
He had succeeded, at Easter 1523, in obtaining the office of
pastor at Allstedt, a small town in a lateral valley of the
Unstrut. In him, more than in any other, the spirit of
the Zwickau prophets fermented with full force, and was
preparing for a violent outburst. Alone, in the room of a
church tower, he held secret intercourse with his God, and
boasted of his answers and revelations. He affected the

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 30?

appearance and demeanour of a man whose soul was
absorbed in tranquillity, devoid of all finite ideas or aspira-
tions, and open and free to receive God's Spirit and inner
Word. More violently than even the champions of Catholic
asceticism, he reproached Luther for leading a comfortable,
carnal life But his whole energies were directed to estab-
lishing a Kingdom of the Saints,— an external one, with ex-
ternal power and splendour. His preaching dwelt incessantly
on the duty of destroying and killing the ungodly, and
especially all tyrants. He wished to see a practical appli-
cation given to the words of the Mosaic dispensation,
commanding God's people to destroy the heathen nations
from out of the promised land, to overthrow their altars,
and burn their graven images with fire. Community of
property was to be a particular institution of the Kingdom
of God, the property being distributed to each man
according to his need : whatever prince or lord refused
to do this, was to be hanged or beheaded. Meanwhile,
Miinzer sought by means of secret emissaries in all direc-
tions to enlist the saints into a secret confederacy. His
chief associate was the former monk, Pfeifer at Muhlhausen,
not far from Allstedt. The Orlamundians, however, whom
also he endeavoured to seduce to his policy of violence,
would have nothing to say to such overtures.

The Elector Frederick even now came only tardily to
the resolve, to interpose, in these ecclesiastical matters and
disputes, his authority as sovereign, nor did Luther himself
desire his intervention so long as the struggle was one of
minds about the truth. Duke John had been strongly
influenced by the ideas of his court-preacher. The princes
still hoped to be able to restore peace between Luther and
his colleague, Carlstadt, who, with all his misty projects,
was still of importance as a theologian.

Carlstadt consented, indeed, at Easter in 1524, to resume
quietly his duties at Wittenberg university. But he soon

308 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

returned to Orlamiinde, to re- assert his position there as
head and reformer of the Church.

With regard to the question of Mosaic and civil law,
Luther was now invited by John Frederick, the son of Duke
John, to express his opinion. It is easy to conceive how
this question might present, even to upright and calm-
judging adherents of the evangelical preaching, considera-
tions of difficulty and much inward doubt. It had cropped
up as a novelty, and, as it seemed, in necessary connection
with this preaching : moreover, on its answer depended a
revolution of all ordinances of State and society, in accord-
ance with the command of God.

Luther's views on this subject, however, were perfectly
clear, and he expressed himself accordingly. In his opinion,
the answer had been given by the keynote of evangelical
teaching. It lay in the distinction between spiritual and
temporal government, the essential features of which he
had already explained in 1523 in his treatise ' On the Secular
Power.' The life of the soul in God, its reconciliation and
redemption, its relations and duty to God and fellow-man
in faith and love — these are the subjects dealt with in the
gospel message of salvation, or the biblical revelation in its
completeness. God has left to the practical understanding
and needs of man, and to the historical development of
peoples and states under His overruling providence, the
arrangement of forms of law for social life, without the
necessity of any special revelation for that purpose. It is
the duty of the secular power to administer the existing
laws, and to make new ones in a proper and legal manner,
according as they may think fit. That God prescribed to
the people of Israel external, civil ordinances by the mouth
of Moses, was part of His scheme of education. Christians
are not bound by these ordinances, — no more, indeed, than
is their inner life and right conduct made conditional on
outward rules and forms. Moral commands alone belong
to that part of the Mosaic law whereof the sanction is

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 309

eternal ; and to the fulfilment of these commands, written,
as St. Paul says, from the beginning on the hearts of men,
the Spirit of God now urges His redeemed people. No doubt
the law of Moses, in regard to civil life, might contain much
that would be useful for other peoples also in that respect.
But it would, in that case, be the business of the powers
that be to examine and borrow from it, just as Germany
borrowed her civil law from the Romans.

Such, briefly stated, are the views which Luther enun-
ciated with clearness and consistency, in his writings and
sermons. He guards the civil power as jealously now against
an irregular assertion of religious principles and biblical
authority, as he had formerly done against the aggressions
of an ecclesiastical hierarchy, while at the same time he
defends the religious life of Christians against the dangers
and afflictions which that hierarchy threatened. Thus he
answered the prince, on June 18, 1524, to this effect :
Temporal laws are something external, like eating and
drinking, house and clothing. At present the laws of the
Empire have to be maintained, and faith and love can co-
exist with them very well. If ever the zealots of the Mosaic
law become Emperors, and govern the world as their own,
they may choose, if they please, the law of Moses; but
Christians at all times are bound to support the law which
the civil authority imposes.

In Miinzer Luther looked for a near outbreak of the
Evil Spirit. He alluded to him in his letter of June 18, as the
' Satan of Allstedt,' adding that he thought he was not yet
quite fledged. He soon heard more about him, namely,
that ' his Spirit was going to strike out with the fist.' On
this subject he wrote the next month to the Elector
Frederick and Duke John, and published his letter. Against
Miinzer 's mere words — his preaching and his personal re-
vilements — he was not now concerned to defend himself.

* Let them boldly preach,' he says, ' what they can

Let the Spirits rend and tear each other. A few, perhaps,

3io EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

may be seduced ; but that happens in every war. Wherever
there is a battle and lighting, some one must fall and be
wounded.' He repeats here, what he had said before, that
Antichrist should be destroyed ' without hands,' and that
Christ contended with the Spirit of His Word. But if
they really meant to strike out with the fist, then Luther
would have the prince say to them, ' Keep your fists quiet,
for that is our office, or else leave the country.'

In August Luther came himself to Weimar, in obedience
to a wish expressed by the two princes. With the court-
preacher he had come to a friendly understanding. Miinzer
had just left Allstedt, an official report of his dangerous
proceedings having been forwarded from there to Weimar,
whither he was summoned for an examination and inquiry.
On August 14 Luther wrote from this town to the magistrate
of Muhlhausen, where Miinzer, as he heard, had taken refuge
and had already mustered a party. He warned the people
of Muhlhausen to wait at least before receiving Miinzer,
until they had heard ' what sort of children he and his
followers were.' They would not remain long in the dark
about him. He was a tree, as he had shown at Zwickau
and Allstedt, which bore no fruit but murder and re-
bellion.

From Weimar Luther travelled on to Orlamunde. On
August 21 he arrived at Jena, where a preacher named
Reinhard was staying with Carlstadt. Luthei here
preached against the * Spirit of Allstedt,' which destroyed
images, despised the sacrament, and incited to rebellion.
Carlstadt, who was present and heard the sermon, waited
on him afterwards at his lodging, to defend himself against
these charges. Luther insisted, notwithstanding, that
Carlstadt was * an associate of the new prophets.' He
challenged him finally to abandon his intrigues and confute
him openly in writing, and the heated interview ended by
Carlstadt promising to do so, and by Luther giving him a
florin as a pledge and token of the bargain.

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 311

From Jena Luther went through Kahla, where also he
preached, to Orlarnunde. The people here had been anxious
for a personal discussion with him, but in writing to him
for that purpose, had addressed him in words as follows :
* You despise all those who, by God's command, destroy
dumb idols, against which you trump up feeble evidence
out of your own head, and not grounded on Scripture.
Your venturing thus publicly to slander us, members of
Christ, shows that you are no member of the real Christ.'
The discussion he held with them led to no success, and
he gave up any further attempt to convince them ; for, as
he said, they burned like a fire, as if they longed to devour
him. On his departure they pursued him with savage
shouts of execration.

Carlstadt, a few weeks later, was deprived of his pro-
fessorship, and had to leave the country. Luther put in a
word for the people of Orlarnunde as ' good simple folk,'
who had been seduced by a stronger will. But against
Carlstadt's whole conduct and teaching he launched an
elaborate attack in a pamphlet, published in two parts, at
the close of 1524 and the beginning of the following year.
It was entitled ' Against the Celestial Prophets, concerning
Images and the Sacrament, &c.,' with the motto ' Their
folly shall be manifest unto all men ' (2 Timothy iii. 9).
For in Carlstadt he sought to expose and combat the same
spirit that dwelt in the Zwickau prophets and in Miinzer,
and that threatened to produce still worse results. If
Carlstadt, like Moses, was right in teaching people to break
down images, and in calling in for this purpose the aid of
the disorderly rabble, instead of the proper authorities, then
the mob had the power and right to execute in like manner
all the commands of God. And the consequence and sequel
of this would be, what was soon shown by Miinzer. ■ It
will come to this length,' says Luther, ' that they will have
to put all ungodly people to death ; for so Moses (Deut. vii.),
when he told the people to break down the images, com-

312 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

raanded them also to kill without mercy all those who had
made them in the land of Canaan.'

The great storm, announced and prepared hy the
? Spirit of Allstedt,' broke loose even sooner than could
have been expected.

Miinzer had really appeared at Muhlhausen. The
town-council, however, were still able to insist on his
leaving the place, together with his friend Pfeifer. He
then wandered about for several weeks in the south-west of
Germany, exciting disturbance wherever he went. But on
September 13 he returned with Pfeifer to Muhlhausen,
where he preached hi his wonted manner, propounded to
the people in the streets his doctrines and revelations, and
attracted the mob to his side, while respectable citizens
and members of the magistracy left the town from fear of
the mischief that was threatening. Towards the end of
February he was offered a regular post as pastor, and soon
after all the old magistrates were turned out and others
more favourable to him elected in their place. The mul-
titude raged against images and convents. The peasants
from the neighbourhood nocked in, anxious for the general
equality which was promised them. Luther wrote to a
friend, ' Miinzer is King and Emperor at Muhlhausen. '

Meanwhile, in Southern Germany peasant insurrections
had broken out in various places since the summer of this
year. In itself, there was nothing novel in this. Ee-
peatedly during the latter part of the previous century, the
poor peasantry had risen and erected their banner, the
1 Shoe of the League ' (Bundschiih), so called from the
rustic shoes which the insurgents wore. Their grievances
were the intolerable and ever-growing burdens, laid upon
them by the lay and clerical magnates, the taxes of all
kinds squeezed from them by every ingenious device, and
the feudal service which they were forced to perform. The
nobles had, in fact, towards the close of the middle ages,
usurped a much larger exercise of their ancient privileges

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 313

against them, by means partly of a dexterous manipulation
of the old Koman law, and partly of the ignorance of that
law which prevailed among their vassals. On the other side,
complaints were heard at that time of the insolence shown
by the wealthier peasants ; of the luxury, in which they
tried to rival their masters ; and of the arrogance and
defiant demeanour of the peasantry in general. The
oppression endured by any particular class of the civil
community does not usually lead to violent disturbances
and outbreaks, unless and until that class is awakened to a
higher sense of its own importance and has acquired an
increase of power. The peasants found, moreover, dis-
contented spirits like themselves among the lower orders in
the towns, who were avowed enemies of the upper classes,
and who complained bitterly of the hardships and oppres-
sions suffered by small people at the hands of the great
merchants and commercial companies, — in a word, from
the power of capital. Furthermore, when once the peasants
rose in rebellion against their masters, the latter also, in-
cluding the nobility, showed an inclination here and there
to favour a general revolution, if only to remedy the de-
fects of their own position. And, in truth, throughout
the German Empire at that time there was a general move-
ment pressing for a readjustment of the relations of the
various classes to each other and to the Imperial power.
Ideas of a total reconstruction of society and the State had
penetrated the mass of the people, to an extent never
known before.

Thus the way was paved, and incentives already supplied
for a" powerful popular movement, apart altogether from
the question of Church Eeform. And indeed this question
Luther was anxious, as we have seen, to restrict to the
domain of spiritual, as distinguished from secular, that is
to say, political and civil action. It was impossible, how-
ever, but that the accusations of lying, tyranny, and
hostility to evangelical truth, now freely levelled against the

3M EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

dominant priesthood and the secular lords who were perse-
cuting the gospel, should serve to intensify to the utmost the
prevailing bitterness against external oppression. With the
same firmness and decision with which Luther condemned
all disorderly and violent proceedings in support of the
gospel, he had also long been warning its persecutors of
the inevitable storm which they would bring upon them-
selves. Other evangelical preachers, however, as for
instance, Eberlin and Strauss, mingled with their popular
preaching all sorts of suggestions of social reform. At last
men went about among the people, with open or disguised
activity, whose principles were directly opposed to those
of Luther, but who proclaimed themselves, nevertheless,
enthusiasts for the gospel which he had brought again to
light, or which, as they pretended, they had been the first
to reveal, together with true evangelical liberty. They
appealed to God's Word in support of the claims and griev-
ances of the oppressed classes ; they grasped their weapons
by virtue of the Divine law. Hence the peculiar ardour
and energy that marked the insurrection, although the
enthusiasm, thus kindled, was united with the utmost
barbarity and licentiousness. Never has Germany been
threatened with a revolution so vast and violent, or so im-
measurable in its possible results. On no single man's
word did so much depend as on that of Luther, the genuine
man of the people.

The movement began late in the summer of 1524 in
the Black Forest and Hegau. After the beginning of the
next year it continued rapidly to spread, and the different
groups of insurgents who were fighting here and there,
combined in a common plan of action. Like a flood the
movement forced its way eastwards into Austria, westwards
into Alsatia, northwards into Franconia, and even as far as
Thuringia. At Eothenburg on the Tauber, Carlstadt had
prepared che way for it by inciting the people to destroy
the images. The demands in which the peasants were

yifE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 315

unanimous, were now drawn up in twelve articles. These
still preserved a very moderate aspect. They claimed above
all the right of each parish to choose its own minister.
Tithes were only to be abolished in part. The peasants
were determined to be regarded no longer as the ' property
of others,' for Christ had redeemed all alike with his blood.
They demanded for everyone the right to hunt and fish,
because God had given to all men alike power over the
animal creation. They based their demands upon the Word
of God ; trusting to His promises they would venture the
battle. ' If we are. wrong,' they said, ' let Luther set us
right by the Scriptures.' God, who had freed the children of
Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, would now shortly deliver
His people. In these articles, and in other proclamations of
the peasantry, there were none of the wild imaginations of
Munzer and his prophets, nor their ideas of a kingdom and
schemes of murder. They burned down, it is true, both
convents and cities, and had done so from the outset. Still
in some places a more peaceable understanding was arrived
at with the upper classes, although neither party placed any
real confidence in the other.

When now the articles arrived at Wittenberg, and
Luther heard how the insurgents appealed to him, he pre-
pared early in April to make a public declaration, in which
he arraigned their proceedings, but at the same time ex-
horted the princes to moderation. He was just then called
away by Count Albert of Mansfeld to Eisleben, to assist, as
we have seen, in the establishment of a new school in that
town. He set off thither on Easter Sunday, April 16, after
preaching in the morning. There he wrote his * Exhortation
to peace : On the Twelve Articles of the Peasantry in Swabia.

In this manifesto he sharply rebukes those princes and
nobles, bishops and priests, who cease not to rage against
the gospel, and in their temporal government 'tax and
fleece their subjects, for the advancement of their own
pomp and pride, until the common people can endure it no

316 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGh.

longer.' If God for their punishment allowed the devil to
stir up tumult against them, He and his gospel were not to
blame ; but he counselled them to try by gentle means
to soften, if possible, God's wrath against them. As for
the peasants, he had never from the first concealed from
them his suspicions, that many of them only pretended to
appeal to Scripture, and offered for mere appearance' sake
to be further instructed therein. But he wished to speak to
them affectionately, like a friend and a brother, and he ad-
mitted also that godless lords often laid intolerable burdens
upon the people. But however much in their articles might
be just and reasonable, the gospel, he said, had nothing
to do with their demands, and by their conduct they showed
that they had forgotten the law of Christ. For by thi
Divine law it was forbidden to extort anything from thi
authorities by force : the badness of the latter was no ex-
cuse for violence and rebellion. Bespecting the substance of
their demands, their first article, claiming to elect their own
pastor, if the civil authority refused to provide one, was
right enough and Christian ; but in that case they must
maintain him at their own expense, and on no account
protect him by force against the civil power. As for the
remaining articles, they had nothing whatever to do with
the gospel. He tells the peasants plainly, that if they per-
sist in their rebellion, they are worse enemies to the gospel
than the Pope and Emperor, for they act against the gospel
in the gospel's own name. He is bound to speak thus to
them, although some among them, poisoned by fanatics,
hate him and call him a hypocrite, and the devil, who was
not able to kill him through the Pope, would now like to
destroy and devour him. He is content if only he can save
some at least of the good-hearted among them from the
danger of God's indignation. In conclusion, he gives to
both sides, the nobles and the peasants, his ' faithful counsel
and advice, that a few counts and lords should be chosen
from the nobility, and a few councillors from the towns, and

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 31-}

that matters should be adjusted and composed in an
amicable manner — that so the affair, if it cannot be arranged
in a Christian spirit, may at least be settled according to
human laws and agreements.'

Thus spoke Luther, with all his accustomed frankness,
fervency, power, and bluntness, equally indifferent to the
favour of the people or of their rulers. But what fruit,
indeed, could be looked for from his words, uttered evidently
with violent inward emotion, when popular passion was so
excited ? Was it not rather to be feared that the peasants
would greedily fasten 011 the first portion of his pamphlet,
which was directed against the nobles, and then shut their
ears all the more closely against the second, which concerned
their own misconduct ? The pamphlet could hardly have
been written, and much less published, before new rumours
and forebodings crowded upon Luther, such as made him
think its contents and language no longer applicable to the
emergency, but that now it was his duty to sound aloud
the call to battle against the enemies of peace and order.
'In my former tract,' he said, 'I did not venture to con-
demn the peasants, because they offered themselves to
reason and better instruction. But before I could look
about me, forth they rush, and fight and plunder and rage
like mad dogs. . . . The worst is at Muhlhausen, where
the arch-devil himself presides.'

In South Germany, on that very Easter Sunday when
Luther set out for Eisleben, the scene of horror was
enacted at Weinsberg, where the peasants, amid the sound
of pipes and merriment, drove the unhappy Count of Hel-
fenstein upon their spears, before the eyes of his wife and
child. Luther's ignorance of this and similar atrocities,
at the time when he was writing his pamphlet at Eisleben,
is easily intelligible from the slow means of communication
then existing. Soon the news came, however, of bands of
rioters in Thuringia, busy with the work of pillage, incen-
diarism, and massacre, and of a rising of the peasantry in

318 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

the immediate neighbourhood. Towards the end of April
they achieved a crowning triumph by their victorious entry
into Erfurt, where the preacher, Eberlin of Giinzburg,
with true loyalty and courage, but all in vain, had striven,
with words of exhortation and warning, to pacify the armed
multitude encamped outside the town, and their sym-
pathisers and associates inside.

On April 26 Miinzer advanced to Miihlhausen, the 'arch-
devil,' as Luther called him, but as he described himself,
the ' champion of the Lord.' He came with four hundred
followers, and was joined by large masses of the peasants.
His ' only fear,' as he said in his summons to the miners of
Mansfeld, ' was that the foolish men would fall into the
snare of a delusive peace.' He promised them a better
result. ' Wherever there are only three among you who
trust in God and seek nothing but His honour and glory,
you need not fear a hundred thousand. . . . Forward
now ! ' he cried ; ' to work ! to work ! It is time that the
villains were chased away like dogs ... To work ! relent
not if Esau gives you fair words. Give no heed to the
wailings of the ungodly ; they will beg, weep, and entreat
you for pity, like children. Show them no mercy, as God
commanded Moses (Deut. vii.) and has declared the same
to us. . . . To work ! while the fire is hot ; let not the
blood cool upon your swords. ... To work ! while it is
day. God is with you ; follow Him ! ' Of Luther he
spoke in terms of peculiar hatred and contempt. In a
letter which he addressed to ' Brother Albert of Mansfeld,'
with the object of converting the Count, he alluded to him
in expressions of the coarsest possible abuse.

In Thuringia, in the Harz, and elsewhere, numbers of
convents, and even castles, were reduced to ashes. The
princes were everywhere unprepared with the necessary
troops, while the insurgents in Thuringia and Saxony
counted more than 30,000 men. The former, therefore, en-
deavoured to strengthen themselves by coalition. Duke

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 319

John, at Weimar, prepared himself for the worst : his brother,
the Elector Frederick, was lying seriously ill at his Castle
at Lochau (now Annaburg) in the district of Torgau.

At this crisis Luther, having left Eisleben, appeared in
person among the excited population. He preached at
Stolberg, Nordhausen, and Wallhausen. In his subsequent
writings he could bear witness of himself, how he had been
himself among the peasants, and how, more than once, he
had imperilled life and limb. On May 3 we find him at
Weimar ; and a few days afterwards in the county of
Mansfeld. Here he wrote to his friend, the councillor
Euhel of Mansfeld, advising him not to persuade Count
Albert to be ' lenient in this affair ' — that is, against the
insurgents ; for the civil power must assert its rights and
duties, however God might rule the issue. ' Be firm,' he
entreats Euhel, ' that his Grace may go boldly on his way.
Leave the matter to God, and fulfil His commands to wield
the sword as long as strength endures. Our consciences
are clear, even if we are doomed to be defeated. ... It is
but a short time, and the righteous Judge will come.'

Luther now hastened back to his Elector, having re-
ceived a summons from him at Lochau. But before he
could arrive there, Frederick had peacefully breathed his
last, on May 5. Faithfully and discreetly, and in the
honest conviction that truth would prevail, he had accorded
Luther his favour and protection, whilst purposely abstain-
ing to employ his power as ruler for infringing or invading
the old-established ordinances of the Church. He allowed
full liberty of action to the bishops, and carefully avoided
any personal intercourse with Luther. But in the face of
death, he confessed the truth of the gospel, as preached by
Luther, by partaking of the communion in both kinds, and
refusing the sacrament of extreme unction.

When his corpse was brought in state to Wittenberg,
and buried in the Convent Church, Luther, who had to
preach twice on the occasion, spoke of the universal grief

320 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

and lamentation that ' our head is fallen, a peaceful man
and ruler, a calm head.' And he pointed out as the ' most
grievous sorrow of all,' how this loss had happened just in
those difficult and wondrous times when, unless God inter-
posed His arm, destruction threatened the whole of Ger-
many. He exhorted his hearers to confess to God their
own ingratitude for His mercy in having given them such
a noble vessel of His grace. But of those who set them-
selves against authorities, he declared, in the words of the
Apostle (Eom. xiii. 2), that 'they shall receive to them-
selves damnation.' ' This text,' he said, ' will do more
than all the guns and spears.'

Quite in the same spirit that dictated his letter sent to
Euhel only a few days before at Mansfeld, Luther now sent
forth a public summons ' Against the murderous and plun-
dering bands of peasants.' He began it with the words
already quoted, ' Before I could look about me, forth they
rush . . . and rage like mad dogs.'

Thus he wrote when he saw the danger was at its highest.
He even suggested the possibility ' that the peasants might
get the upper hand (which God forbid !) ; ' and that ' God
perhaps willed that, in preparation for the Last Day, the
devil should be allowed to destroy all order and authority,
and the world turned into a howling wilderness.' But he
called upon the Christian authorities, with all the more
urgency and vehemence, to use the sword against the
devilish villains, as God had given them command. They
should leave the issue to God, acknowledge to Him that
they had well deserved His judgments, and thus with a
good conscience and confidence ' fight as long as they could
move a muscle.' Whosoever should fall on their side would
be a true martyr in God's eyes, if he had fought with such a
conscience. Then, thinking of the many better people who
had been forced by the bloodthirsty peasants and murderous
prophets to join the devilish confederacy, he broke out by
exclaiming, * Dear lords, help them, save them, take pity

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS. 321

upon these poor men ; but as to the rest, stab, crush,
strangle whom you can.'

These words of Luther were speedily fulfilled by the
events. The Saxon princes, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse,
the Duke of Brunswick, and the Counts of Mansfeld com-
bined together before the mass of the peasants in Thuringia
and Saxony had collected into a large army. On May 15
the forces of Miinzer, numbering about 8,000 men, were
defeated in the battle of Frankenhausen. Miinzer himself
was taken prisoner, and, crushed in mind and spirit,
was executed like a criminal. A few days before, the main
army of the Swabian peasants had been routed, and during
the following weeks, one stronghold of the rebellion after
another was reduced, and the horrors perpetrated by the
peasants were repaid with fearful vengeance on their heads.
The Landgrave Philip, and John, the new Elector of
Saxony, distinguished themselves by their clemency in dis-
missing unpunished to their homes, after the victory, a
number of the insurgent peasants.

But Luther's violent denunciations now gave offence even
to some of his friends. His Catholic opponents, and those
even who saw no harm in burning heretics wholesale for no
other reason than their faith, reproached him then, and do so
even now, with horrible cruelty for this language. Luther
replied to the ' complaints and questions about his pamph-
let,' with a public 'Epistle on the harsh pamphlet against
the peasants.' His excitement and irritation was increased
by what he heard talked about his conduct. He maintained
what he had said. But he also reminded his readers, that
he had never, as his calumniators accused him, spoken of
acting against the conquered and hurabled, but solely of
smiting those actually engaged in rebellion. He declared
further, at the close of his new and forcible remarks on the
use of the sword, that Christian authorities, at any rate,
were bound, if victorious, to ' show mercy not only to the
innocent, but also to the guilty.' As for the ' furious

Y

322 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

raging and senseless tyrants, who even after the hattle cannot
satiate themselves with blood, and throughout their life never
trouble themselves about Christ ' — with these he will have
nothing whatever to do. Similarly, in a small tract on
Miinzer, containing characteristic extracts from the writings
of this ' bloodthirsty prophet,' as a warning to the people,
Luther entreated the lords and civil authorities ' to be
merciful to the prisoners and those who surrendered, . . .
eo that the tables should not be turned upon the victors.'
If we have now to lament, as we must, that after the
rebellion was put down, nothing was done to remedy the
real evils that caused it ; nay, that those very evils were
rather increased as a punishment for the vanquished, this
reproach at least applies just as much to the Catholic lords,
both spiritual and temporal, as to the Evangelical authorities
or Luther.

In addition also to his alleged harshness and severity to
the insurgents, Luther was accused, both then and since,
by his ecclesiastical opponents, of having given rise to the
rebellion by his preaching and writings. When the danger
and anxiety were over, Emser had the effrontery to say
of him in some popular doggrel, 'Now that he has lit
the fire, he washes his hands like Pilate, and turns his
cloak to the wind ; ' and again, ' He himself cannot deny
that he exhorted you to rebellion, and called all of you dear
children of God, who gave up to it your lives and property,
and washed your hands in blood. Thus did he write in
public, and thereto has he striven.'

In answer to this charge, Luther referred to his treatise
* On the Secular Power,' and to other of his writings. ' I
know well,' he was able to say with truth, ' that no teacher
before me has written so strongly about secular authority ;
my very enemies ought to thank me for this. Who ever
made a stronger stand against the peasants, with writing
and preaching, than myself? ' Among the Estates of the
Empire, not even the most violent enemies of evangelical

THE FANATICS AND PEASANTS.

323

Iqmas ^Vvnce.*^ Pkedio

STET'JN DVJUNGEAU

Fig. 28. — Muxzer (his execution in the background.)
From an old woodcut.

y2

324 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

doctrine could venture now to turn their victorious weapons
against their associates in arms who espoused that doc-
trine, with whom they had achieved the common conquest,
and from whose midst had sounded the. most vigorous call
to battle and to victory. Luther, on the contrary, was not
afraid at this moment to exhort the Archbishop, Cardinal
Albert, of whose friendly disposition to himself, his friend
Euhel had recently informed him, to follow the example of
his cousin, the Grand Master in Prussia, by converting his
bishopric into a temporal princedom, and entering the stats
of matrimony, and to name, as the chief motive for so
doing, the 'hateful and horrible rebellion,' wherewith God's
wrath had visited the sins of the priesthood.

Thus did Luther, in these stormy times, whatever
might be thought of the violence of his utterances, take
up his position clearly and resolutely froni the first, and
maintain it to the end; — sure of his cause, and safe against
the new attack which he saw now the devil was making ;
unyielding and defiant towards his old Papal enemies and
their new calumniations. And in this frame of mind he
took just now a step, calculated to sharpen all the tongues
of slander, but one in which he saw the fulfilment of his
calling. F.reed from unchristian monastic vows, he entered
into the holy state of matrimony ordained by God. We
first hear him speaking decidedly on this subject in a letter
to Ruhel of May 4. After referring to the devil as the
instigator of the insurgent peasants, and of the murderous
deeds xwhich made him anxious to prepare himself for
death, he continues with the following remarkable words :
' And if I can, in spite of him, I will take my Kate in mar-
riage before I die. I hope they will not take from me my
courage and my joy.'

325

CHAPTEK VI.

luther's marriage.

Our readers will recall to mind those words of Luther at
the Wartburg, on hearing that his teaching was making the
clergy marry and monks renounce the obligation of their
vows. No wife, he declared, should be forced upon him.
He remained in his convent ; looked on quietly, as one
friend and fellow-labourer after the other took advantage of
their liberty ; wished them happiness in the enjoyment of
it, and advised others to do the same ; but never changed
his views about himself.

His enemies reproached him with living a worldly life,
with drinking beer in company with his friends, with play-
ing the lute, and so on. Nor was it merely his Catholic
opponents who sought in such charges material for vile
slander, but also jealous ranters like Miinzer gave vent to
their hatred in this manner. All the more remarkable it is
that no slanderous reports of immoral conduct were ever
launched at this time, even by his bitterest enemies, against
the man who was denouncing so openly and sternly offences
of that description among the superior, no less than the
inferior, clergy. Calumnies of this kind were reserved for
the occasion of his marriage.

In truth, his life was one of the most arduous labour,
anxiety, and excitement ; and as regards his bodily needs,
he was satisfied with the plainest and most sparing diet and
the simplest enjoyments. The Augustinian convent, whence
he received his support, being gradually denuded of its
inmates by their abandonment of monastic life, its revenues

326 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

accordingly were stopped. Luther informed Spalatin in
152 4 of the poverty to which they were reduced ; not indeed,
as Spalatin well knew, that he concerned himself much
about it, or wished to make it a subject of complaint ; if
he had no meat or wine, he could live well enough on bread
and water. Melancthon describes how once, before his
marriage, Luther's bed had not been made for a whole year,
and was mildewed with perspiration. ' I was tired out,'
says Luther, ' and worked myself nearly to death, so that I
fell into the bed and knew nothing about it.'

When, moreover, he exchanged, as we have seen, in the
autumn of 1524, the monastic cowl for the garb of a pro-
fessor ; and when he and the prior Brisger were the only
ones of all the former monks left in the convent, he remained
quietly where he was, and never entertained the idea of
marriage. A noble lady, Argula von Staufen, wife of the
Bitter von Grumbach, formerly in the Bavarian army, who
had written publicly for the cause of the gospel, and thereby
incurred, with her husband, the displeasure of the Duke of
Bavaria, and who was now in active correspondence with
the Wittenbergers and Spalatin, expressed to the latter her
surprise that Luther did not marry. Luther thereupon
wrote to Spalatin on November 30, 1524, saying, ' I am not
surprised that folks gossip thus about me, as they gossip
about many other things. But please thank the lady in
my name, and tell her that I am in the hands of the Lord,
as a creature whose heart He can change and re-change,
destroy or revive, at any hour or moment ; but as my heart
has hitherto been, and is now, it will never come to pass
that I shall take a wife. Not that I am insensible to my
flesh or sex, . . . but because my mind is averse to wed-
lock, because I daily expect the death and the well-merited
punishment of a heretic'

Shortly afterwards Luther wrote to his friend Link :
4 Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far other thoughts,
the Lord has plunged me into marriage.' It was in the

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 327

spring of 1525 that he had formed this resolve, which
speedily ripened to its fulfilment.

In a letter of March 12, 1525, he complained to his
friend Amsdorf, who had gone to Magdeburg, of depression
of spirits and temptation, and besought him to pay him a
friendly visit to cheer him. It was, as we see from the
contents of the letter, a temptation, which caused Luther
to feel that, in the words of Scripture, it was ' not good for
man to be alone,' bat that he ought to have a help-meet to
be with him. As to the choice of such a help-meet he may
have already talked with Amsdorf, and very possibly they
may have spoken of a lady of Magdeburg of the family of
Alemann, who were conspicuous there for their devotion to
the evangelical cause.

But Luther's own choice turned on Catharine von Bora,
a former nun. Sprung from an ancient, though poor family
of noble blood, she had been brought up from childhood in
the convent of Nimtzch near Grimma. We find her there
as early as 1509; she was born on January 29, 1499, and
was consecrated as a nun at the age of sixteen. When the
evangelical doctrine became known at Nimtzch, Catharine
endeavoured with other nuns to break the bonds, which she
had taken upon herself without any real free-will or know-
ledge of her own. In vain she entreated her relatives to
release her. At length one Leonhard Koppe, a burgher
and councillor of Torgau, took her part. Assisted by him
and two of his friends, nine nuns escaped secretly from the
convent on Easter Eve, April 5, 1523. Luther justified
their escape in a public letter addressed to Koppe, and
collected funds for their support, until they could be further
provided for. They fled first to Wittenberg, and here
Catharine stayed at the house of the town clerk and future
burgomaster, Philip Keichenbach.

She was now in her twenty- sixth year, when Luther
turned his thoughts towards her. He told afterwards his
friends and Catharine herself, with perfect frankness, that

J

EXILE, RETURX, AXD MARRIAGE.

he bad not been in love with her before, for be bad bis
suspicions, and they were not unfounded, that ahe waa
proud. He bad even thought, shortly before, of arranging
a marriage between her and a minister named Glatz, who
later on, however, proved himself unworthy of his office.
Catharine, on the other hand, is said to have gone to
Amsdorf, as the trusted friend of Luther, and to have told
him frankly that she did not wish to marry Glatz, but was
ready to form an honourable alliance with himself or with
Luther. If Cranach's portrait of her is to be trusted, she
was not remarkable for beauty or any outward attraction.
But she was a healthy, strong, frank and true German
woman. Luther might reasonably expect to have in her a
loyal, fresh-hearted, and staunch help-meet for his life,
whose own cares or requirements would cause him little
anxiety, while she would be just such a companion as, with
his physical ailments and mental troubles, he required. In
the event of her haughty disposition asserting itself unduly,
he was the very man to correct it with quiet firmness and
affection.

What further considerations induced him to marry,
appear from bis letters, in which he urged his friends to do
likewise. Thus he wrote on March 27 to Wolfgang Eeis-
senbusch. preceptor of the convent at Lichtenberg, saying
that man was created by God for marriage. God bad so
made man that he could not well do without it ; whoever
was ashamed of marrying, must also be ashamed of his
manhood, or must pretend to be wiser than God. The
devil had slandered the married state by letting people
who lived in immorality be held in high honour. Luther,
in thus frankly stating the natural disposition of man to
married life, spoke from his own experience. ' To remain
righteous unmarried." he said once later on, ' is not the
least of trial-, as those know well who have made the
attempt.' In referring as he did to the devil, he probably
had in his mind the scandal which threatened him if he

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.

should decide on marrying. He then \ m to say to

abuscfa that if he honoured the Word and work of
God, the scandal would be only a matter of a moment, to
be followed by years of honour. To Spalatin he writes on
April 10: 'I find so ma:. - jns for urging others to

marry, that I shall soon be brought to it myself, notwith-
-~ riding that enemies never cease to condemn the marri
state, and our little wia - ridicule it every d?;- The
' wi - ' he was thinking of were professors and theo-

logians of his circle at Wittenberg. Not only was he

jived, however, to obey the will of his Creator, despite
all condemnation and ridicule, but he deemed it his duty to

(dry to the rightness of the step by his example as well
as by his words. His enemies, in fact, were taunting him
that he did not venture to practise himself what he preached
to others. A few days after, immediately before his depar-
ture for Eisleben, he wrote again to Spalatin, recommend-
ing his friend, who had q so utterly averse to matrimony,
to take care that he was not anticipated in the step.

Amidst all the terrors of the Peasants' War, which had
now broken out in all its violence, and in earnest contem-
plation of a near end possibly threatening himself, he had
formed the fixed resolv< his letter of May 4 to Ruhel

shows, to ' take his Kate to wife, in spite of the devil.*
This is the first letter in which he mentions her name to a
friend. And to this resolve he steadilv adhered during the
troublous weeks that followed, when he was called on to
pay the last honours to his Elector, to rouse men to the
sanguinary contest with the peasants, and to hear con-
tumely and reproach heaped upon his stirring words. Be-
sides writing to the Cardinal Albert himself, recommending
him to marry, he sent a letter also on June 3 to his friend
Ruhel, who held office as one of his advisers, saying, ' If
my marrying might serve in any way - -rengthen his
Grace to do the same. I should be very willing to set his
Grace the example ; for I have a mind, before leaving this

330 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

world, to enter the married state, to which I believe God
has called me.' He had thoughts of this kind, he added,
even if it should end only in a betrothal, and not an actual
marriage.

He speedily gave effect to his final resolve, in order to
cut short all the loose and idle gossip which threatened
him as soon as his intentions were known with regard to
Catharine von Bora. He took none of his friends into his
confidence, but acted, as he afterwards advised others to
act. ' It is not good,' he said, ' to talk much about such
matters. A man must ask God for counsel, and pray, and
then act accordingly.'

As to how he finally came to terms with Catharine we
have no account to show. But on the evening of June 13,
on the Tuesday after the feast of the Trinity, he invited to
his house his friends Bugenhagen, the parish priest of the
town, Jonas, the professor and provost of the church of
All Saints, Lucas Cranach with his wife, and the juristic
professor Apel, formerly a dean of the Cathedral at Bam-
berg, who himself had married a nun, and in then presence
was married to Catharine. The marriage was solemnised
in the customary way. The pair were asked, by the priest
present, Bugenhagen, according to the custom prevailing
in Germany, and which Luther afterwards followed in
his tract on Marriage, whether they would take one
another for husband and wife ; then* right hands were then
joined together, and thus, in the name of the Trinity, they
were 'joined together in matrimony.' The ceremony was
therewith concluded, and Catharine remained thenceforth
with Luther as his wife. Some days after Luther gave a
little breakfast to his friends ; and the magistracy, of
whom Cranach was a member, sent him their congratula-
tions, together with a present of wine. A fortnight later,
on June 27, Luther celebrated his wedding in grander
style, by a nuptial feast, in order to gather his distant
friends around him. He wrote to them saying that they

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 331

were to ' seal and ratify ' his marriage, and ' help to pro-
nounce the benediction.' Above all he rejoiced to be able
to see his ' dear father and mother ' at the feast. Among the
motives for his marrying he especially mentioned that iio
had felt himself bound to fulfil an old duty, in accordance
with his father's wishes.

Great as was the surprise which Luther occasioned by
his speedy marriage, it was no greater than the talk and
sensation that immediately ensued.

Among even his adherents and friends — especially the
' wiseacres ' of whom he had spoken — there was much
astonishment and shaking of heads. It was considered
that the great man had lowered himself, and gossip was
busy in asking what reasons could have induced him to
take the step. Melancthon, his devoted friend, lost for the
moment, as is shown by his letter of June 16 to the philo-
logist Camerarius, his accustomed self-possession. He
admitted that married life was a holy state, and one well-
pleasing to God, and that its results might be beneficial to
Luther's nature and character ; but he was of opinion that
Luther's lowering himself to this condition was a lament-
able act of weakness, and injurious to his reputation — and
that, too, at a time when Germany was more than ever in
need of all his spirit and his energy. Luther had not
invited him to be present on the 13th, from a suspicion
that Melancthon would scarcely approve of what he was
doing. A few days afterwards, however, he warmly be-
sought Link, their common friend, to be sure and attend
their nuptial feast on the 27th. That Luther, in this
respect also, had acted as a man of strong character and
determination, would soon be evident to them all.

His enemies seized the occasion of his marriage to
spread vulgar falsehoods about him, which soon were further
exaggerated, and have been raked up shamelessly again,
even in our own time, or at least repeated in veiled and
scandalous inuendoes.

332 EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

As for Luther himself, he at first felt strange in the
new mode of life which he had entered at the age of forty-
one, so suddenly, and in the midst of his arduous labours,
and the stirring public events and struggles of the time.
At the same time he could not but be aware of the un-
favourable reception which his step would encounter,
even with his friends at Wittenberg. Melancthon found

Fig. 29. — Luther. (From a Portrait by Cranach in 1525.)
At Wittenberg.

him, during the early days of his married life, in a restless
and uncertain mood. But he remained firm in his con-
viction that God had called him to the married state. The
same da} that Melancthon wrote so anxiously to Camerarius
about his marriage, Luther himself wrote to Spalatin, say-
ing, ' I have made myself so vile and contemptible forsooth,
that all the angels, I hope, will laugh, and all the devils

L UTHER >S. MARRIA GE. 333

weep.' In his letter of invitation to his friends for June 27,
friendly humour is mingled with words of deep earnestness ;
nay, even with thoughts of death, and a longing for release
from this infatuated world. Later on Luther preached, on
the ground of his own experiences, about the blessings,
the joys, and the purifying burdens of the state ordained
and sanctified by God, and never without an expression of

Fig. 30. — Catharine von Bora, Luther's wife. (From a Portrait by
Cranach about 1525.) At Berlin.

gratitude to God for having brought him to enter into it.
Seventeen years after his marriage he bore testimony to
Catharine in his will, that she had been to him a ' pious,
faithful, and devoted wife, always loving, worthy, and
beautiful.'

Of the wedding feast of June 27 we have no further
details. It was, so far as concerns the repast, a very

334

EXILE, RETURN, AND MARRIAGE.

simple one, as compared with the elaborate nuptial enter-
tainments then in fashion. The university presented
Luther with a beautifully chased goblet of silver, bearing
round its base the words : ' The honourable University of
the Electoral town of Wittenberg presents this wedding
gift to Doctor Martin Luther and his wife Kethe von Bora.' l

Fig. 31. — Luther's King from Catharine.

Apartments in the convent, which Brisger also quitted
shortly after to become a minister, were appointed by the
Elector as the dwelling-place of Luther. Here, therefore,
Catharine had to manage her household.

Protestant posterity has been anxious to retain a me-
morial of this marriage in the wedding rings of the newiy-

Fig. 32.— Luther's Double King.

married couple. These, however, were probably not used at
the marriage itself, since Luther wished to have it solemnised
so quickly and without the knowledge of others. But a
ring has been preserved, which Luther, to judge from the in-
scription (D. Martino Luthero Catharina v. Boren 13 Jun.

1 The goblet is now in the possession of the University of Greifswald.

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE. 335

1525), received at any rate from his Kate as a supplementary
reminiscence of the day. In recent times — about 1817 —
it has been multiplied by several copies. It bears the figure
of the crucified Saviour and the instruments of His death ;
in perfect keeping with the spirit of the Eeformer, whose
marriage, like the other acts of his life, was concluded in
the name of Christ crucified. There exists also, in the
Ducal Museum at Brunswick, a double ring, consisting of
two interfastened in the middle, of which one bears a
diamond with his initials M. L. D., and the other a ruby
with the initials of his wife, C. v. B. The inner surface
of the first ring is engraved with the words : * Was . Got .
zusamen . fiegt,' (Those whom God hath joined together),
and the second, ' Sol . kein . mensch . scheiden,' (Shall
no man put asunder). This double ring was probably given
by some friend to Luther, or, as others suppose, to his
wife.

PAET V.

LUTHER AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH,
TO THE FIRST RELIGIOUS PEACE. 1525-1532.

CHAPTEE I.

SURVEY.

The year 1525 marks in the life of Luther and the history
of the Eeformation an epoch and a departure of general
importance.

Luther's preaching had originally forced its way among
the German people and its various classes, with an energy
and strength never counted on by its opponents. It seemed
impossible to calculate how far the ferment would extend,
and what would be its ultimate results. It was the idea of
the Elector Frederick the Wise, now dead, that by simply
letting the word of the gospel unfold itself quietly and
work its way without hindrance, the truth could not fail
eventually to penetrate alt Christendom, or at least the
Christian world of Germany, and thus accomplish a peace-
ful victory. This hope had guided him during his lifetime
in his relations with Luther, and no one appreciated and
responded to it more loyally than Luther himself. But
now, as we have seen, those German princes who adhered
to the old Church system had begun to form a close
alliance, and were meditating means of remedying, albeit
in their own fashion, certain evils in the Church. Erasmus,
still the representative of a powerful modern movement of

SURVEY. 337

the intellect, had at length broken finally with Luther, and
renewed his former allegiance to the Romish Church. From
the German nobility, whose sympathy and co-operation
Luther had once so boldly and hopefully invoked in his
contest with the Papacy, it was vain, since the fatal
enterprise of Sickingen, which Luther himself had been
forced to condemn, to expect any material assistance in
furtherance of the Evangelical cause. True, there was
the extensive rising of another class, the peasantry, who
likewise appealed to the gospel. But genuine disciples of
the gospel could not fail to see in this movement, with terror,
how a perverse conception of the sacred text led to errors
and crimes which even Luther wished to see suppressed in
blood. And the Catholic nobles took advantage of this
rising to persecute with the greater rigour all evangelical
preaching, and to extend, without further inquiry, their
denunciation of the insurgents to those of evangelical
sympathies who held entirely aloof from the insurrection.
Luther, in his dealings with the nobles and peasants, failed
to preserve that boldness and confidence of mind and
language which he had previously displayed towards his
fellow-countrymen. That his cause, indeed, was the cause
of God, he remained unshakenly convinced ; but in a sadder
spirit than he had ever shown before, he left God's will
to determine what amount of visible success that cause
should attain to in the present evil world, or how far the
decision should depend upon His last great Judgment.

Even before the Peasants' War broke out, the pro-
ceedings of the fanatics had begun to hamper and disturb his
labours in the field of reformation, and had prepared for him
much pain and tribulation. He had to grow distrustful of
so many whom he had regarded as brothers, and of their man-
ner of proclaiming the Word of God, Whom they pretended
to serve. He already heard of men among them, who not
only rejected infant baptism, and openly attacked his own,
no less than the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament, but

z

338

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

SURVEY.

339

who impugned the universal belief of Christendom in the
Triune God and the Divinity of the Saviour. Early in 1525
news reached him of such a man at Nuremberg, John Denk,
the Eector of the school there, who was expelled on that
account by the magistrates. Luther's own doctrine of the
presence of Christ's Body in the Lord's Supper, which he
had previously to defend against Carlstadt, his former
colleague and fellow-combatant, now found a far more
formidable opponent in the Zurich Reformer, Ulrich
Zwingli. The latter, in a letter of November 16, 1524, to
Alber, a preacher at Reutlingen, had already disputed the

Fig. 34. — Facsimile of Frederick's signature.

Real Presence, by interpreting the words ' This is my body '
to mean ' This signifies my body.' In March 1525 he made
known this interpretation to the world by publishing his
letter, together with a pamphlet ' On the True and False
Religion.' He was joined at Basle by Oecolampadius,
whom Luther had welcomed formerly as a fellow-labourer,
and who published his own interpretation of the words of
Christ. Butzer and Capito, the evangelical preachers at
Strasburg, inclined to the same view, which threatened to
spread rapidly over the South of Germany. The opposition
now encountered by Luther was far more dangerous for his

z 2

34o RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

teaching than the theories and agitations of a Carlstadt;
since whatever judgment may be formed about its merits,
it proceeded at any rate from men of far more thought-
ful minds, more solid theological acquirements, and more
honest reverence for the Word of God. Herewith then
began that division of opinion among the ranks of the
Evangelical Eeformers, which served more than anything
else to retard the fresh and vigorous progress of the
Reformation, and infected even Luther's spirit with the
bitterness of the controversy it entailed.

At the same time, however, Luther had now won firm
ground for the Evangelical cause upon a fixed and extensive
territory. Within these limits it was possible to construct
a new Church system, upon stable foundations and with a
new constitution. John, the new Elector of Saxony, did
not enjoy, it is true, the same high consideration through-
out the Empire as his brother Frederick, Luther's great
protector, and he was also his inferior as a statesman.
But with Luther himself both he and his son John
Frederick had already maintained a friendly personal inter-
course, such as his predecessor had carefully avoided. Nor
did his disposition lead him, like Frederick, to pay any such
regard to the possible preservation of Church unity in the
German Empire and Western Christendom ; on the contrary,
he soon showed his readiness to undertake independently,
as sovereign of his country, the establishment of a new
Evangelical Church. Prussia had just preceded him in a
reform embracing the whole country, under the former
Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, their present Duke.
The Elector now found a further ally for the work in the
Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the most active and politically
the most important of all. As a young man of only twenty
years of age, in the beginning of 1525, he had rendered
valuable service by his energy, resolution, and warlike
ability, in the defeat of Sickingen, and again when opposed
to the seditious peasants. Already before the Peasants'

SURVEY.

34i

War commenced, he had acquired, mainly through Melanc-
thoa, whom he had met when travelling, a knowledge and

19onf6ottesnafc«n WUps Eanfctgraffc Sullen ©rauc 511 Catsennclnbogen

A.-n Srdfciw j.rmfe«uJ<T 5u £rff»r.'

Fig. 35.— Philip of Hesse. (From a woodcut of Brosamer.)

love of the evangelical doctrines. His father-in-law, Duke
George of Saxony, had vainly endeavoured, after then

342 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

common victory over the insurgents, to alienate him from
the cause of the hateful Luther, who he said was the author
of so much mischief. But the menaces hurled against
that cause by the Catholic States of the Empire served
only to attach him more closely and loyally to John and
John Frederick, and thence resulted in the following
spring the League of Torgau, which was joined also by the
princes of Brunswick-Liineburg, Anhalt, and Mecklenburg,
and the town of Magdeburg. The co-operation of the
territorial princes made it possible to procure for the
Reformation and its Church system a firm position in the
German Empire against the Emperor and the hostile
Catholic States. And, at the same time, it offered means
for establishing on the ground newly occupied by the
Pieformation itself, firm and generally recognised regula-
tions of Church polity, and defending them from being
disturbed by the proceedings of fanatics.

Under these new conditions and circumstances, Luther's
work became limited, as was natural, to a narrower field,
and bore no longer the same character of boldness and
independence which had marked it in his original contest
with Piome. But it required, on this account, all the more
perseverance and patience, faithfulness and circumspection
in minor matters, and an adequate regard to what was
actually required and practicable, while clinging firmly to
the lofty aims and objects with which the work of the
Reformation had commenced.

To the portrait of Luther as the Reformer we have to
add henceforth that of the married man and head of the
household, whose single desire is to fulfil, as a man and a
Christian, the duties belonging to this state of life, and to
enjoy with a quiet conscience the blessings of God. In his
letters to intimate friends we find happy home news alter-
nating with the most profound and serious reflections on
the conduct and duties of the Evangelical Church, and on
abstruse questions of theology. His language as a Reformer

SURVEY.

343

deals now no longer, as in his Address to the German
Nobility, in particular, with the problems and interests of
political and social life ; it is mainly to religious and spirit-
ual matters, and to the kindred questions affecting the
active work and constitution of the Church, that his mission
is now directed. But his personal relations with his
countrymen became all the more close and intimate in
consequence of this change of life ; and that which by
many of his friends was regretted as a lowering of his re-
putation and influence, becomes a valuable and essential
feature in the historical portrait now presented to our eyes.
In single dramatic incidents and changes, so to speak,
Luther's life henceforth, as was only natural, is no longer
so rich as during the earlier years of development and
struggle. We shall no longer meet with crises of such a
kind as mark a momentous epoch.

344 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTEE II.

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE TO 1529.

Among the particular labours which occupied Luther during
the further course of the year 1525, apart from his per-
severing industry as a professor and preacher, we have
already had occasion to mention one, namely, his reply to
Erasmus. We find him towards the end of September
entirely engrossed in this work. Not a single proposition
in Erasmus' book, so he wrote to Spalatin, would he admit.

The reckless severity with which he assailed that dis-
tinguished opponent appears all the more remarkable when
contrasted with the conciliatory tone whereby he was then
hoping to appease the wrath of his two bitterest enemies
in high places, King Henry VIII. of England and Duke
George of Saxony.

On September 1, 1525, he addressed a humble letter to
Henry. King Christian II. of Denmark, who, after forfeiting
his throne by his arbitrary and despotic rule, had taken refuge
with the Elector Frederick, showed an inclination to favour
the new doctrine, and even came in person to Wittenberg.
By him Luther was induced to believe — for what reason it
does not appear — that Henry VIII. had entirely changed his
Church principles ; and to hope that, if only he could make
amends for the personal offence he had given him, Henry
might be won over still further for the Evangelical cause.
Luther refers to this hope as follows : ' My Most Gracious
Sire the King gave me good cause to hope for the King of
England. . . . and ceased not to urge me by speech and
letter, giving me so many good words, and telling me that

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 345

I ought to write humbly, and that it would be useful to do
so, and so forth, until I am fairly intoxicated with the idea.'
He then cast himself in his letter at the feet of his Majesty,
and besought him to pardon him for the offence he had
given by his earlier pamphlet, ' because from good witnesses
he had learned that the Eoyal treatise which he had
attacked, was not indeed the work of the King himself, but
a concoction of the miserable Cardinal of York ' (Edward
Lee). He promised to make a public retractation, in another
pamphlet, for the sake of the King's honour. At the same
time, he wished that the grace of God might assist his
Majesty, and enable him to turn wholly to the gospel, and
shut his ears against the siren voices of its enemies.

With regard to Duke George of Saxony, all that Luther
had as yet heard about him was that he was incessantly
bringing fresh complaints about him to the Elector, that he
rigorously excluded the new teaching from his own territory,
and, what was more, that he was anxious to go on from the
conquest of the peasants to the suppression of Luther-
anism, which had been the cause, he declared, of all the
mischief. Now, however, Luther learned from certain Saxon
nobles, that the Duke himself was not so unfavourably
disposed to the cause, and was willing to treat with mild-
ness and toleration those who preached or confessed the
gospel ; that it was with Luther personally that he was so
offended and irritated. Luther wrote to him on Decem-
ber 22 of this year. ' I have been advised,' he says, ' once
more to entreat your Grace in this letter, with all humility
and friendship, for it almost seems to me as if God, our
Lord, would soon take some of us from hence, and the fear
is that Duke George and Luther may also have to go.' He
then entreats, with all submission, his pardon for whatever
wrong he had done the Duke by writing or in speech;
but of his doctrine he could, for conscience' sake, retract
nothing. Luther, however, did not humble himself to
George as he had done to King Henry, and his letter bears

346 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

his characteristic sharpness of tone. He assured the Duke,
however, that, with all his former severity of language
towards him, he was a better friend to him than all his
sycophants and parasites, and that the Duke had no need
to pray to God against him.

Luther undoubtedly wrote the two letters, as he himself
says of the one to Henry, with a simple and honest heart.
They show, indeed, how much genuine good-nature, and at
the same time how strange an ignorance of the. world and
of men, was combined in him together with a passionate
zeal for combat. George answered him at once with
ferocity, and, as Luther says, with the coarseness of a
peasant. The prince, otherwise not ignoble, was so em-
bittered by hatred against the heretic as to reproach him
with the vulgarest motives of avarice, ambition, and the
lust of the flesh. Never had Luther, even with his worst
enemies, stooped to such personal slander. Concerning
the answer which came afterwards from King Henry, as
well as the reply of Erasmus, we shall speak further on.

Meanwhile, Luther and his friends were directing their
attention to the newly published doctrine of the Last Supper.
At first Luther left others to contest it : Bugenhagen
addressed a public letter against it to his friend Hess at
Breslau ; Brenz at Schwabish Hall, together with other
Swabian preachers, published tracts against Oecolampadius.
Luther himself, after February 1525, referred repeatedly
to Zwingli's theory in sermons to the congregation at
Wittenberg which were printed at the time. But beyond
this he confined himself to sending warnings by letter, on
November 5, 1525, and January 4, 1526. to Strasburg and
Reutlingen, whence he had been appealed to on the subject,
against the false doctrines which had been put forward con-
cerning the Sacrament, and particularly against the fanatics.
We shall follow later on the further course of the con-
troversy.

All these polemics, however, were only an adjunct to his

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 347

positive labours and activity. His chief task now was to
carry out the work he had begun in his own Church. For
this he could rely with certainty on the inward sympathy
of the new Elector, and he hastened to turn it actively
to account as soon as possible, for the furtherance of
his Church objects. During his communications with
the late Elector Frederick, Spalatin had always acted as
intermediary ; but to John he addressed himself direct, and,
whenever occasion offered, by word of mouth, and this at
times with much urgency. Spalatin was now the pastor of
a parish, as had been his wish some time before. He was
the successor at Altenburg of Link, who had removed to
Nuremberg, and he enjoyed the especial confidence of John.

In his officialcapacity Luther was, and always remained,
before all things, a member of the university. He cherished
at all times a lively appreciation of its importance to the cause
of evangelical truth, the Church, and the common welfare of
society. He began by pleading on its behalf to the new
Elector, to remedy the defects and grievances which had
crept in during the latter years of the old and ailing Elector
Frederick. The requisite salary, in particular, was wanting
for several of the professorships, and the customary lectures
on many branches of study had been dropped. Luther, as he
himself afterwards told the Elector in a tone of apology, had
1 worried him sorely to put the university in order,' so
much so that ' his urgency wellnigh surprised the Elector,
as though he had not much faith in his promises.' In Sep-
tember the necessary reforms at Wittenberg were provided
for by a commission specially appointed by the prince.
The interest the latter took in theology made him double
Melancthon's salary, in order to attach him the more closely
to the theological lectures, which originally were not part
of his duty.

Luther next devoted all his energies towards the require-
ments of the new Church system.

At Wittenberg, and from thence in other places, regula-

343 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

tions for the performance of public worship had already been
established, with the object of giving full and free expres-
sion to evangelical truth. The congregation had the Word
of God read aloud to them, and joined in the singing of
German hymns. The portions of the Liturgy, however,
which were sung partly by the priests and partly by the
choir, were still conducted in Latin. Luther now introduced
a complete service in German, changing here and there the
old form. To assist him in the musical alterations
required, the Elector sent him two musicians from Torgau.
With one of these in particular, John Walter, Luther
worked with diligence, and continued afterwards on terms
of friendly intercourse. He himself composed a few pieces
for the work.

Of these, as of the earlier regulations at Wittenberg,
Luther published a formal account. It appeared at the
beginning of the next year (1526), under the title of ' The
German Mass and Order of Divine Worship at Witten-
berg.' But he guarded himself in this publication, from
the outset, against the new Service being construed into a law
of necessary obligation, or made a means of disquieting the
conscience. In this matter, as in others, he wished above
all things that regard should be paid to the weak and simple
brethren —to those who had still to be trained and built up
into Christians. Nay, he had meant it for a people among
whom, as he said, many were not Christians at all, but the
majority stood and stared, for the mere sake of seeing
something new, just as though a Christian Service were
being performed among Turks and heathens. The first
question with these was how to attract them publicly to a
confession of belief and Christianity. He thought also, at
this time, of another and, as he termed it, a true kind of
Evangelical Service, for which, however, the people were not
yet prepared. His idea in this was that all individuals
who were Christians in earnest, ai*-I were willing to confess
the gospel, should enrol themselves by name, and meet

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 349

together for prayer, for reading the Word of God, for
administering the Sacraments, and exercising works of
Christian piety. For an assembly of this kind, and for
their worship of God, he contemplated no elaborate form of
Liturgy, but, on the contrary, simply a ' short and proper '
means of ' directing all in common to the Word and
prayer and charity,' and in addition thereto, a regular
exercise of congregational discipline and a Christian care of
the poor, after the example of the Apostles. 'But for the
present, he said, he must resign this idea of a congregation
simply from the want of proper persons to compose it. He
would wait ' until Christians were found sufficiently earnest
about the Word to offer themselves for the purpose, and
adhere to it ; ' otherwise it might serve only to generate
a ' spirit of faction,' if he attempted to carry it through
by himself; for the Germans, he said, were a wild people,
and very difficult to deal with, unless extreme necessity
compelled them. The Elector, however, readily assented to
this project, and purposed to propose it as a model for other
churches in his dominions.

At this point, however, a wider field of action opened
out, the details of which could not be comprehended at a
single glance, and which seemed to require a higher care,
and the guidance and support of higher powers and
authorities. In many places, nothing as yet, or at all events
nothing of a stahle and well-ordered kind, had been done
towards a reconstruction of the Church and the satisfaction
of spiritual requirements in an evangelical sense. There
was no collective Church, and no ecclesiastical office existing
by whose influence and authority reforms might have been
made, and a new organisation established. This was a
grievous state of need where, perhaps, the existing clergy
and the majority or the flower of their congregations were
already unanimous and decided in their confession of
evangelical doctrine. And in a number of congregations,
indeed, among the great mass of the country people, there

35o REC0XSTRUCT10X OF THE CHURCH.

prevailed to a peculiar degree, that want of understanding,
of ripe thought, and of inward sympathy, which Luther
noticed even among many of his Wittenbergers. The
bishops, in their visitations in Saxony under the Elector
Frederick, had been unable to check any longer the
progress of the new teaching, and did not venture on any
further interference. And yet this teaching, as Luther
knew better than anyone, had not yet succeeded, in spite
of all its popularity, in penetrating the souls of men. To
a large extent, the masses seemed to be still stolid and in-
different. Even among the clergy, many were so unstable,
so obscure, and so incompetent, that they failed to make any
progress with their congregations. There were even some
among them who were ready, according to circumstances,
to adopt either the old or the new Church usages. In some
places the new practices were opposed as innovations,
especially by various nobles, and by the priests, who were
dependent on the nobles : if such opposition was to be
broken, it could only be done by the authority and power
of the local sovereign. Lastly, and apart from all this, the
new Church system was threatened with imminent disturb-
ance and dissolution from the insufficiency or misuse of the
funds required for its support. The customary revenues
were falling off ; payments were no longer made for private
masses ; and many of the nobles, including even those who
remained attached to the old system, began to secularise
the property of the Church. ' Unless measures are taken,'
said Luther, ' to secure a suitable disposition and proper
maintenance for ministers and preachers, there will shortly
be neither parsonages nor schools worth speaking of, and
Divine Worship and the Word of God will come utterly to
an end.'

The first question was to establish the principles on
which a new organisation of the Church should be based.

The earlier opinions expressed by Luther, especially in
his Address to the German Nobility, might have led one to

CONTIXUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 351

expect that the new Church system conformably to his ideas
would have to be built up, to use a modern expression, from
below, that is to say, on the basis of the universal priest-
hood of all baptized Christians, who should now therefore,
after hearing and receiving the Word of the Gospel, have
proceeded to organise and embody themselves into a new
community. Luther had also, in that treatise, as we have
seen, allotted certain duties to the civil authorities in regard
even to ecclesiastical matters ; and it was now from profound
and painful conviction that he confessed that the great bulk
of the people were as yet not genuine Christians, but needed
public means of attraction to draw them to Christianity.
Later on we met with his idea of a ' German Mass,' involving
a voluntary union and assembly of genuine Christians, as
explained by him three years before in a sermon. There
were elements here at least, one might have thought, suffi-
cient to constitute an independent system of congregations.
Shortly afterwards, in October 1526, a Hessian synod,
convoked by the Landgrave Philip at Homberg, actually
adopted the draft of a constitution, which provided that
those Christians who acknowledged the Word of God should
voluntarily enrol themselves as members of a Christian
Evangelical Brotherhood or congregation, who should elect
in assembly their pastors and bishops, and that the latter,
together with other deputies, should constitute a general
synod for the national Church. But Luther, true to his
conviction, previously expressed, that there were not the
men fitted for such an institution, stated now his opinion to
Philip, that he had not the boldness to carry out such a
heap of regulations, and that people were not as fit for them
as those who sat and made the regulations imagined.
Moreover he could not tolerate the idea that the mass of
those who remained outside this community, and who were
looked upon, according to the Homberg scheme, as heathens,
should be left to their fate, without preachers of the Word, and
above all, without either baptism or the Christian education

352 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

of their children. Added to this, he adhered strenuously
to his belief, which we have noticed long before, that
certain duties with reference to religion and the Church
were incumbent on the civil authorities, the princes and
magistrates, in common with all the rest of Christendom.
It was their duty, he declared in those earlier writings of
his, to prohibit, by force if necessary, the proceedings of
those priests who were hostile to the gospel. He now
applied the idea and definition of external, idolatrous
practices to the Papal system of public worship and the
sacrifice of the mass. To suppress these practices, he
said, was the duty of those authorities who watched over the
external relations of life : such was his demand against the
Catholics at Altenburg. On the other hand, this province
of external life and external regulations embraced also the
material means required for the external maintenance of
the Church. And it was only a step further for those
authorities to forbid any public exposition of doctrines which
they found to be at variance with the Word of God, and
to appoint also preachers of that Word ; nay, to undertake,
in short, the establishment and preservation of the consti-
tution of the Church, so far as the same was external, and
necessary, and incapable of being established by any other
power. The Elector John himself had already, on August 16,
1525, announced at his palace of Weimar to the assembled
clergy of the district, ' that the gospel should be preached,
pure and simple, without any additions by man.'

Under such circumstances, and starting with such views,
Luther now urged the Elector to take in hand a compre-
hensive regulation of the Church. As soon as he had dis-
charged his duties at the university and completed his new
Church Service in German, he turned his efforts to a
general ' Reform of parishes.' This, as he said in a letter
at the end of September, was now the stumbling-block
before him. On October 31, 1525, the anniversary of his
ninety-five theses, he represented to the Elector that, now

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 353

that the reorganisation of the university and the regulation
of public worship had been completed, there still remained
two points which demanded the attention and care of
his Highness, as the supreme temporal authority in his
country. One of these was the miserable condition of
the parishes in general ; the other was the proposal that
the Elector, as Luther had already advised him at Witten-
berg, should institute an inspection also of the civil ad-
ministration of his councillors and officials, about which
there were everywhere complaints both in the towns and
country districts. With regard to the first point, he went
On to explain, on receiving a gracious reply from the Elector,
that the people who wished to have an evangelical preacher
should themselves be made to contribute the additional in-
come required ; and he proposed that the country should
be divided into four or five districts, each of which should
be visited by two commissioners appointed by the prince.
He then proceeded to consider the external maintenance
of the parochial clergy, and the means necessary for that
purpose. He suggested further that ministers advanced in
years, or unfit to preach, but otherwise of pious life and
conduct, should be instructed to read aloud, in person or
by deputy, the Gospel, together with the Postills or short
homilies. With regard to those parishes where the appoint-
ment of an evangelical preacher was a matter of indifference
or of actual repugnance, he expressed at present no opinion ;
but in his later proposals he assumed the establishment of
evangelical preachers throughout the country. He expresses
his conviction that the Elector will give his services to God
in these reforms of the Church, as a faithful instrument in
His hands, 'because,' as he says, 'your Highness is en-
treated and demanded to do so by us, and by the pressing
need itself, and, therefore, assuredly by God.'

Eeadily as the Elector John listened to Luther *s words
and exhortations, he found it difficult, nevertheless, to
initiate at once so vast an undertaking as was imposed

A A

354 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

upon him. Luther was well aware, as he himself told
John, that matters of importance might easily be delayed
at court, ' through the overwhelming press of business ; '
and that princely households had much to do, and it was
necessary to importune them perseveringly. He knew his
prince— that with the best will possible, he was not ener-
getic enough with those about him ; and among the latter
he suspected that many were indifferent and selfish with
regard to matters of religion and the Church. The task,
however, that now lay before him, was even more difficult
and involved than Luther himself had imagined when first
shaping and propounding his idea.

A whole year went by before the project was taken up
comprehensively. Only in the district of Borna, in January
1526, was an inspection of parishes effected by Spalatin
and a civil official of the prince ; and another one was
held during Lent in the Thuringian district of Tenneberg,
in which Luther's friend Myconius of Gotha, afterwards
one of the most prominent Reformers in Thuringia, took
an active part. Meantime, however, the clergy in general
received directions from the Elector to perform public
worship in the manner prescribed by Luther's ' German
Mass.'

In the course of the summer the development of the
general affairs of the Empire enabled the desired co-opera-
tion of the civil authorities in the work of Reformation to
be established on a basis of law. And yet, just now, the
situation, as regards the Evangelical cause, had become
more critical than at any previous time since the Diet of
Worms. For the Emperor Charles had terminated, by a
brilliant victory, the war with France, which had compelled
him to let his Edict remain dormant ; and the peace con-
cluded with the captured King Francis, in January 1526,
at Madrid, was designated by the two monarchs as being
intended to enable them to take up their Christian arms in
common for the expulsion of the infidels and the extirpation

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 355

of the Lutheran and other heresies. The Emperor issued
an admonition to certain princes of Germany, bidding
them take measures accordingly, and a number of them
held a conference together on the subject. Against the
danger thus threatening, the Evangelical party formed the
League of Torgau. But no sooner was King Francis at
liberty and back in France, than he broke the peace so
solemnly contracted. Pope Clement, to whom this peace
had offered such a splendid prospect of purifying and
uniting Christendom, set more store by his political in-
terests and temporal possessions in Italy, which formed a
subject of such jealous rivalry and contention between
himself, the Emperor, and the King. Terrified at the over-
whelming power of the Emperor, the Holy Father made use
of his Divine credentials to absolve the French king from
his oath, and himself concluded a warlike alliance with
him against Charles, which went by the name of the ' Holy
League.' Myconius remarked of this compact that ' what-
ever Popes do must be called most holy, for so holy are
they that even God, the Gospel, and all the world, must lie
at their feet.' Meanwhile, the Turks from the East were
advancing on Germany. Thus it came to pass that a Diet
at Spires, which seemed originally to have been summoned
for the final execution of the Edict of Worms, led to the
Imperial Kecess of August 27, 1526, wherein it was de-
clared that until the General, or at least National Council of
the Church, which was prayed for, should be convoked,
each State should, in all matters appertaining to the Edict
of Worms, ' so live, rule, and bear itself as it thought it
could answer it to God and the Emperor.'

Luther now turned again, on November 22, 1526, to
John, * not having laid for a long while any supplication
before his Electoral Highness.' The peasants, he said, were
so unruly, and so ungrateful for the Word of God, that he
had almost a mind to let them go on living like pigs, without
a preacher, only their poor young children, at any rate, must

A A. 2

356 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

be cared for. He laid down in this letter some important
principles concerning the duty of the civil power and the
State. The prince, he declared, was the supreme guardian
of the young, and of all who required his protection. All
towns and villages that could afford the means, should be
compelled to keep schools and preachers, just as they were
compelled to pay taxes for bridges, roads, and other local
requirements. In support of this demand, he appealed to
the direct command of God, and to the universal state of
destitution prevailing. If that duty were neglected, the
country would be full of vagrant savages. With regard to
the convents and other religious foundations, he stated that,
as soon as the Papal yoke had been removed from the land,
they would pass over to the prince as the supreme head ;
and it would then become his duty, however onerous, to
regulate such matters, since no one else would have the
power to do so. He particularly warned the Elector not
to allow the nobles to appropriate the property of the con-
vents, ' as is talked of already, and as some of them are
actually doing.' They were founded, he said, for the service
of God : whatever was superfluous might be applied by the
Elector to the exigencies of the state or the relief of the
poor. To his friends Luther complained with grief and
bitterness of some courtiers of the Elector, who after
having always shut their ears to religion and the gospel,
were now chuckling over the rich spoils in prospect, and
laughing at evangelical liberty.

The work now commenced in real earnest. The Elector
had the necessary regulations prepared at Wittenberg, at
a conference between his chancellor Briick, Luther, and
others. In February 1527 visitors were appointed, and
among them was Melancthon. They began their labours
at once in the district to which Wittenberg belonged, but
of their proceedings here nothing further is known. In
July the first visitation on a large scale took place in
Thuringia.

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 357

Just at this time, however, Luther was overtaken by
severe bodily suffering and also by troubles at home, while
the visitation and the academical life at Wittenberg had to
experience an interruption.

Luther's first year of married life had been one of hap-
piness. Symptoms of a physical disorder, the stone, had
appeared, however, even then, and in after years became
extremely painful and dangerous.

On June 7, 1526, as he announced to his friend Buhel,
his ' dear Kate brought him, by the great mercy of God, a
little Hans Luther,' — her firstborn. With joy and thank-
fulness, as he says in another letter, they now reaped the
fruit and blessings of married life, whereof the Pope and
his creatures were not worthy.

Amidst air his various labours in theology and for the
Church, and in preparing for the visitation, he took his
share in the cares of his household, laid out the garden
attached to his quarters at the convent, had a well made,
and ordered seeds from Nuremberg through his friend
Link, and radishes from Erfurt. He wrote at the same
time to Link for tools for turning, which he wished to prac-
tise with his servant Wolf or Wolfgang Sieberger, as the
1 Wittenberg barbarians ' were too much behind in the art ;
and he was anxious, in case the world should no longer care
to maintain him as a minister of the Word, to learn how to
gain a livelihood by his handiwork.

Early in January 1527 he was seized with a sudden rush
of blood to the heart. It nearly proved fatal at the moment,
but fortunately soon passed away. An attack of illness,
accompanied by deep oppression and anxiety of mind, and
the effects of which long remained, followed on July 6. On
the morning of that day, being seized with anguish of the
soul, he sent for his faithful friend and confessor Bugen-
hagen, listened to his words of comfort from the Bible, and
with persevering prayer commended himself and his beloved
ones to God. At Bugenhagen's advice, he then went to a

358 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

breakfast, to which the Elector's hereditary marshal, Hans
Loser, had invited him. He ate little at the meal, hut was
as cheerful as possible to his companions. After it was
over, he sought to refresh himself with conversation with
Jonas in his garden, and invited him and his wife to spend
the evening at his home. On their arrival, however, he
complained of a rushing and singing noise, like the waves
of the sea,«in his left ear, and which afterwards shot through
his head with intolerable pain, like a tremendous gust of
wind. He wished to go to bed, but fainted away by the
door of his bedroom, after calling aloud for water. Cold
water having been poured upon him, he revived. He
began to pray aloud, and talked earnestly of spiritual
things, although a short swoon came over him in the
interval. The physician Augustin Schurf, who was called
in, ordered his body, now quite cold, to be warmed.
Bugenhagen too was sent for again. Luther thanked
the Lord for having vouchsafed to him the knowledge of
His holy Name ; God's will be done, whether He would let
him die, which would be a gain to himself, or allow him to
live on still longer in the flesh, and work. He called his
friends to witness that up to his end he was certain of
having taught the truth according to the command of God.
He assured his wife, with words of comfort, that in spite of
all the gossip of the blind world she was his wife, and he
exhorted her to rest solely on God's Word. He then
asked, ' Where is my darling little Hans ? ' The child
smiled at his father, who commended him with his mother
to the God who is the Father of the fatherless and judges
the cause of the widow. He pointed to some silver cups
which had been given him, and which he wished to
leave his wife. ' You know,' he added, ' we have nothing
else.' After a profuse perspiration he grew better, and the
next day he was able to get up to meals. He said after-
wards that he thought he was dying, in the hands of his
wife and his friends, but. that the spiritual paroxysm which

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 359

had preceded had been something far more difficult for
him to hear.

Luther, after recovering from this attack, still com-
plained of weakness in the head, and his inward oppres-
sion and spiritual anguish was renewed and became inten-
sified. On August 2 he told Melancthon, who was then
busy with his visitation in Thuringia, that he had been
tossed about for more than a week in the agonies of death
and hell, and that his limbs still trembled in consequence.

Whilst he was still in this state of suffering, news came
that the plague was approaching Wittenberg, nay, had
actually broken out in the town. It is well known how
this fearful scourge had repeatedly raged in Germany, and
how ruinous it had been, from the panic which preceded
and accompanied it. The university, from fear of the
epidemic, was now removed to Jena.

Luther resolved, however, together with Bugenhagen,
whom he was assisting as preacher, to remain loyally with
the congregation, who now more than ever required his
spiritual aid ; although his Elector wrote in person to him
saying, ' We should for many reasons, as well as for your own
good, be loth to see you separated from the university. . . .
Do us then the favour.' He wrote to a friend, 'We are
not alone here ; but Christ, and your prayers, and the
prayers of all the saints, together with the holy angels, are
with us.'

The plague had really broken out, though not with that
violence which the universal panic would have led one to
suppose. Luther soon counted eighteen corpses, which were
buried near his house at the Elster Gate. The epidemic
advanced from the Fishers' suburb into the centre of the
town : here the first victim carried off by it, died almost in
Luther's arms - the wife of the burgomaster Tilo Denes.
To his friends elsewhere Luther sent comforting reports,
and repressed all exaggerated accounts. His friend Hess
at Breslau asked him ' if it was befitting a Christian man

360 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

to fly when death threatened him.' Luther answered him
in a public letter, setting forth the whole duty of Christians
in this respect. Of the students, a few at any rate re-
mained at Wittenberg. For these he now began a new
course of lectures.

Luther's spiritual sufferings continued to afflict him for
several months, and until the close of the year. Though
he had known them, he said, from his youth, he could
never have expected that they would prove so severe. He
found them very similar to those attacks and struggles
which he had had to endure in early life. The invasion of
the plague, and the parting from all his intimate friends
except Bugenhagen, must have contributed to increase
them.

He was just now deeply shocked and agitated by the
news of the death of a faithful companion in the faith, the
Bavarian minister Leonard Kaser or Kaiser, who was
publicly burnt on August 16, 1527, in the town of
Scherding. Luther broke out, as he had done after Henry
of Zutphen's martyrdom, into a lamentation of his own
unworthiness compared with such heroes. He published
an account of Leonard and his end, which had been sent
him by Michael Stiefel, adding a preface and conclusion of
his own. About the same time he composed a consolatory
tract for the Evangelical congregation at Halle-on-the-
Saale, whose minister Winkler had been murdered in the
previous April.

In the autumn a new controversial treatise was
published against him by Erasmus, which he rightly
described as a product of snakes ; and he now stood in
the midst of the contest between Zwingli and Oecolam-
padius. He exclaimed once in a letter to Jonas, ' 0 that
Erasmus and the Sacramentarians (Zwingli and his
friends) could only for a quarter of an hour know the
misery of my heart. I am certain that they would then
honestly be converted. Now my enemies live, and are

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 361

mighty, and heap sorrow on sorrow upon me, whom God
has already crushed to the earth.'

The pestilence soon reached his friends. The wife of
the physician Schurf, who was then living in the same
house with him, was attacked by it, and only recovered
slowly towards the beginning of November. At the
parsonage the wife of the chaplain or deacon George
Borer succumbed to it on November 2, whereupon Luther
took Bugenhagen and his family from the panic-stricken
house into his own dwelling. But soon after dangerous
symptoms showed themselves with a friend, Margaret
Mocha, who was then staying with Luther's family, and
she was actually ill unto death. His own wife was then
near her confinement. Luther was the more concerned
about her, as Borer's wife, when in the same condition,
had sickened and died. But Frau Luther remained, as he
says, firm in the faith, and retained her health. Finally,
towards the end of October his little son Hans fell ill, and
for twelve whole days would not eat. When the anniversary
of the ninety-five theses came round again, Luther wrote
to Amsdorf telling him of these troubles and anxieties, and
concluded with the words : ' So now there are struggles
without and terror within. . . It is a comfort which we
must set against the malice of Satan, that we have
the Word of God, whereby to save the souls of the faithful,
even though the devil devour their bodies. . . Pray for us,
that we may endure bravely the hand of the Lord, and
overcome the power and craft of the devil, whether it be
through death or life. Amen. Wittenberg : All Saints'
Day, the tenth anniversary of the death-blow to indul-
gences, in thankful remembrance whereof we are now
drinking a toast.'

A short time afterwards Luther was able to send Jonas
somewhat better news about the sickness at home, though
he was still sighing with deep inward oppression; 'I suffer,'
he said, ' the wrath of God, because I have sinned in His

362

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

sight. Pope, Emperor, princes, bishops, and all the world
hate me, and, as if that were not enough, my brethren too
(he means the Sacramentarians) must needs afflict me.
My sins, death, Satan with all his angels— all rage un-

Fig. 36.— Luther.
(From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528, at Berlin.)

ceasingly ; and what could comfort me if Christ were to
forsake me, for Whose sake they hate me ? But He will
never forsake the poor sinner.' Then follow the words
above quoted about Erasmus and the Sacramentarians.

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 363

Towards the middle of December the plague gradually
abated. Luther writes from home on the tenth of that
month : ' My little boy is well and happy again. Schurf 's
wife has recovered, Margaret has escaped death in a mar-

Fig. 37. — Luther's Wife.
(From a Portrait by Cranach in 1528, at Berlin.)

vellous manner. We have offered up five pigs, which
have died, on behalf of the sick.' And on his return home
this day to dinner from his lecture, his wife was safely
delivered of a little daughter, who received the name of
Elizabeth.

364 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

To his own inward sufferings Luther rose superior by
the strengthening power of the conviction that even in
these his Lord and Saviour was with him, and that God
had sent them for his own good and that of others ; that
is to say, for his own discipline and humbling. He applied
to himself the words of St. Paul, ' As dying, and behold we
live ; ' nay, he wished not to be freed of his burden, should
his God and Saviour be glorified thereby.

Luther's famous hymn, £m' feste Burg ist unser Gott,
appeared for the first time, as has been recently proved, in
a little hymn-book, about the beginning of the following
year. We can see in it indeed a proof how anxious was
that time for Luther. It corresponds with his words,
already quoted, on the anniversary of the Eeformation.

With the cessation of the pestilence and the return of
his friends, the new year seems to have brought him also
a salutary change in his physical condition ; for his suffer-
ings, which were caused by impeded circulation, became
sensibly diminished.

Since the outbreak, and during the continuance of the
plague, the work of Church visitation had been suspended.
Melancthon, however, who had followed the university to
Jena, was commissioned meanwhile to prepare provisionally
some regulations and instructions for further action in
this matter, and in August Luther received the articles
which he had drafted for his examination and approval.

These articles or instructions comprised the funda-
mental principles of Evangelical doctrine, as they were
henceforth to be accepted by the congregations. They
were drawn up with especial regard to the ' rough common
man,' who too often seemed deficient in the first rudiments
of Christian faith and life, and with regard also to many
of those confessing the new teaching, who, as Melancthon
perceived, were not unfairly accused of allowing the word
of saving faith to be made a ' cloak of maliciousness,' and
who filled their sermons rather with attack? against the

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 565

Pope than with words of edifying purport. Melancthon
said on this point, ' those who fancy they have conquered
the Pope, have not really conquered the Pope.' And whilst
teaching that those who were troubled about their sins had
only to have faith in their forgiveness for the merits of
Christ, to be justified in the sight of God and to find com-
fort and peace, nevertheless, he would have the people
earnestly and specially reminded that this faith could not
exist without true repentance and the fear of God ; that
such comfort could only be felt where such fear was pre-
sent, and that to achieve this end God's law, with its
demands and threats of punishment, would effectually
operate upon the soul.

Luther himself had taught very explicitly, and in ac-
cordance with his own experience of life, that the faith
which saves through God's joyful message of grace could
only arise in a heart already bowed and humbled by the
law of God, and, having arisen, was bound to employ itself
actively in fruits of repentance ; although, in stating this
doctrine, he had not perhaps so equally adjusted the condi-
tions, as Melancthon had here done. An outcry, however,
now arose from among the Komanists, that Melancthon no
longer ventured to uphold the Lutheran doctrine ; of course
it suited their interests to fling a stone in this manner at
Luther and his teaching. But what was far more im-
portant, an attack was raised against Melancthon from the
circle of his immediate friends. Agricola of Eisleben, for in-
stance, would not hear of a repentance growing out of such
impressions produced by the Law and the fear of punish-
ment. The conversion of the sinner, he declared, must
proceed solely and entirely from the comforting knowledge
of God's love and grace, as revealed in His message to
man : thence, further, and thence alone, came the proper
fear of God, a fear, not of His punishment, but of Himself.
This distinction he had failed to find in Melancthon's In-
structions. It was the first time that a dogmatic dispute

366 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

threatened to break out among those who had hitherto stood
really united on the common ground of Lutheran doctrine.

Luther, on the contrary, approved Melancthon's draft,
and found little to alter in it. What his opponents said
did not disturb him ; he quieted the doubts of the Elector
on that score. Whoever undertook anything in God's cause,
he said, must leave the devil his tongue to babble and tefi
lies against it. He was particularly pleased that Melanc-
thon had ' set forth all in such a simple manner for the
common people.' Fine distinctions and niceties of doctrine
were out of place in such a work. Even Agricola, who wished
to be more Lutheran than Luther himself, was silenced.

Melancthon's work, after having been subjected by the
Elector to full scrutiny and criticism in several quarter*,
was published by his command in March 1528, with a
preface written by Luther, as ' Instructions of the Visitors
to the parish priests in the Electorate of Saxony.' In this
preface Luther pointed out how important and necessary
for the Church was such a supervision and visitation. He
explained, as the reason why the Elector undertook this
office and sent out visitors, that since the bishops and
archbishops had proved faithless to their duty, no one else
had been found whose special business it was, or who had
any orders to attend to such matters. Accordingly, the
local sovereign, as the temporal authority ordained by God,
had been requested to render this service to the gospel,
out of Christian charity, since, in his capacity as civil ruler,
he was under no obligation to do so. In like manner,
Luther afterwards described the Evangelical sovereigns as
' Makeshift-bishops ' (Nothbischofe). At the same time the
instructions for visitation introduced now in the smaller
districts the office of superintendent as one of permanent
supervision.

In the course of the summer preparations were made
for a visitation on a large scale, embracing the whole
country. The original intention had been to deal, by means

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 367

of one commission, with the various districts in rotation.
Such a course would have necessarily entailed, as was
admitted, much delay and other inconveniences. A more
comprehensive method was accordingly adopted, of letting
different commissions work simultaneously in the different
districts. Each of these commissions consisted of a theo-
logian and a few laymen, jurists, and councillors of state,
or other officials. Luther was appointed head of the commis-
sion for the Electoral district. The work was commenced
earlier in some districts than in others. Luther's com-
mission was the first to begin, on October 22, and apparently
in the diocese of Wittenberg.

Luther had already, since May 12, voluntarily under-
taken a new and onerous labour. Bugenhagen had left
Wittenberg that day for the town of Brunswick, where, at
the desire of the local magistracy, he carried out the work
of reform in the Church, until his departure in October for
the same purpose to Hamburg, where he remained until
the following June. Luther undertook his pastoral duties
in his absence, and preached regularly three or four times in
the week. Nevertheless, he took his share also in the work
of visitation ; the district assigned to him did not take him
very far away from Wittenberg. He remained there,
actively engaged in this work, during the following months,
and with some few intervals, up to the spring. From the
end of January 1529 he again suffered for some weeks from
giddiness and a rushing noise in his head ; he knew not
whether it was exhaustion or the buffeting of Satan, and
entreated his friends for their prayers on his behalf, that
he might continue steadfast in the faith.

The shortcomings and requirements brought to light by
the visitation corresponded to what Luther had expected.
In his own district the state of things was compara-
tively favourable ; happily, a third of the parishes had
the Elector for their patron, and in the towns the magis-
trates had, to some extent at least, fulfilled their duties

363 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

satisfactorily. The clergy, for the most part, were good
enough for the slender demands with which, under existing
circumstances, their parishioners had to be content. But
things were worse in many other parts of the country. A
gross example of the rude ignorance then prevailing, not
only among the country people, but even among the clergy,
was found in a village near Torgau, where the old priest
was hardly able to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed,
but was in high reputation far and near as an exorcist,
and did a brisk business in that line. Priests had frequently
to be ejected for gross immorality, drunkenness, irregular
marriages, and such like offences ; many of them had to
be forbidden to keep beer-houses, and otherwise to practise
worldly callings. On the other hand, we hear of scarcely
any priests so addicted to the Eomish system as to put diffi-
culties in the way of the visitors. Poverty and destitution,
so Luther reports, were found everywhere. The worst
feature was the primitive ignorance of the common people,
not only in the country but partly also in the towns. We
are told of one place where the peasants did not know a
single prayer ; and of another, where they refused to learn
the Lord's Prayer, because it was too long. Village schools
were universally rare. The visitors had to be satisfied if
the children were taught the Lord's Prayer, the Creed,
and the Ten Commandments by the clerk. A knowledge
of these at least was required for admission to the Com-
munion.

Luther in the course of his visitations mixed freely with
the people, in the practical, energetic, and hearty manner so
peculiar to himself.

For the clergy, who needed a model for their preaching,
and for the congregations to whom their pastors, owing to
their own incompetence, had to preach the sermons of
others, nothing more suitable for this purpose could be
offered than Luther's Church-Postills. Its use, where
necessary, was recommended. It had shortly before been

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 369

completed ; that is to say, after Luther in 1525 had finished
the portion for the winter half-year, his friend Eoth, of
Zwickau, brought out in 1527 a complete edition of sermons
for the Sundays of the summer half-year, and all the feast-
days and holidays, compiled from printed copies and manu-
scripts of detached sermons.

The most urgent task, however, that Luther now felt
himself bound to perform, was the compilation of a
Catechism suitable for the people, and, above all, for the
young. Four years before, he had endeavoured to encourage
friends to write one. His ' German Mass ' of 1526 said :
1 The first thing wanted for German public worship is a
rough, simple, good Catechism ; ' and further on in that
treatise he declared that he knew of no better way of
imparting such Christian instruction, than by means of
the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer,
for they summed up, briefly and simply, almost all that
was necessary for a Christian to know.

He now took in hand at once, early in 1529, and amidst
all the business of the visitations, a larger work, which was
intended to instruct the clergy how to understand and explain
those three main articles of the faith, and also the doctrines
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. This work is his so-
called ' Greater Catechism,' originally entitled simply the
' German Catechism.'

Shortly afterwards followed the ' Little Catechism,' —
called also the * Enchiridion ' — which contains in an
abbreviated form, adapted to children and simple under-
standings, the contents of his larger work, set out here in
the form of question and answer. ' I have been induced
and compelled,' says Luther in his introduction, ' to com-
press this Catechism, or Christian teaching, into this
modest and simple form, by the wretched and lamentable
state of spiritual destitution which I have recently in my
visitations found to prevail among the people. God help
me ! how much misery have I seen ! The common folk,

B B

370 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

especially the villagers, know absolutely nothing of Chris-
tian doctrine, and alas, many of the parish priests are
almost too ignorant or incapable to teach them ! ' He en-
treats therefore his brother clergymen to take pity on the
people, to assist in bringing home the Catechism to them,
and more particularly to the young ; and to this end, if no
better way commended itself, to take these forms before
them, and explain them word by word.

For the use of the pastors, he added to this Catechism a
short tract on Marriage, and in the second edition, which fol-
lowed immediately after, he subjoined a reprint of his treatise
on Baptism, which he had published three years before.

The Catechism met the requirements of simple minds
and of a Christian's ordinary daily life, by providing also
forms of prayer for rising, going to bed, and eating, and
lastly a manual for households, with Scriptural texts for all
classes. This ends with the words —

Let each his lesson learn to spell,
And then his house will prosper well.

To the clergy, in particular, Luther addressed himself,
that they might imbue the people in this manner with
Christian truth. But he wished also, as he said, to instruct
every head of a household how to ' set forth that truth
simply and clearly to his servants,' and teach them to pray,
and to thank God for His blessings.

The contents of the Catechism were carefully confined
to the highest, simplest, and thoroughly practical truths of
Christian teaching, without any trace or feature of polemics.
In its composition, as for instance, in his exposition of
the Lord's Prayer, and in his small prayers above men-
tioned, he availed himself of old materials. How excellently
this Catechism, with its originality and clearness, its depth
and simplicity, responded to the wants not only of his own
time, but of after generations, has been proved by its having
remained in use for centuries, and amid so many different

CONTINUED LABOURS AND PERSONAL LIFE. 371

ranks of life and such various degrees of culture. Except
his translation of the Bible, this little book of Luther is the
most important and practically useful legacy which he has
bequeathed to his people.

The visitations were over when the two Catechisms ap-
peared, although they had not yet been held in all the
parishes. Events of another kind and dangers threatening
elsewhere now demanded the first attention of the Elector
and the Keformers.

B » £

3/2 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTEK III.

ERASMUS AND HENRY VIII. — CONTROVERSY WITH ZWINGLI AND
HIS FOLLOWERS, UP TO 1628.

Luther's controversy with Erasmus, the most important of
the champions of Catholic Churchdom, had terminated, it
will be remembered, so far as Luther was concerned, with
his treatise ' On the Bondage of the Will.' To the new
tract which Erasmus published against him, in two parts,
in 1526 and 1527, and which, though insignificant in sub-
stance, was violent and insulting enough in tone, Luther
made no reply. Erasmus, nevertheless, to the pleasure of
himself and his patrons in high places, continued his viru-
lent attacks on the Eeformation, which was bringing ruin,
he declared, on the noble arts and letters, and carrying
anarchy into the Church, while he himself, in his own
mediating manner, and in the sense and with the help of
the temporal rulers, was doing his best to promote certain
reforms in the Church, within the pale of the ancient system,
and on its proper hierarchical basis. On what principles,
however, that basis was established, and the Divine rights
of the hierarchy reposed, he wisely abstained, now as he
had done before, from explaining. In Luther's eyes he was
merely a refined Epicurean, who had inward doubts about
religion and Christianity, and treated both with disdain.

Luther's letter to Henry VIII., which we have noticed in
an earlier chapter, took a long time before it reached the
King, and before the latter could send an answer to it.
The writing of . that answer must have given his royal
adversary much satisfaction ; it turned out a good deal

ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 373

coarser than even the one from Duke George ; Luther's
marriage in particular afforded Henry an occasion for
insulting language. Eraser published it in German early
in 1527, adding some vituperations and falsehoods of his
own. Luther's only object in replying was to dissipate
any impression that he had ever declared to Henry his
readiness to recant. His reply consisted of a few but
powerfully written pages. He pointed out that in his
letter he had expressly excepted his doctrines from any
offer of retractation ; upon these doctrines he took his stand,
let kings and the devil do their worst. Beyond these he
had nothing which so encouraged his heart, and gave him
such strength and joy. To the personal insults and impu-
tations of sensuality and so forth, which Henry VIII., this
man of unbridled passions, had poured upon him, he replied
that he was well aware that, in regard to his personal life,
he was a poor sinner, and that he was glad his enemies were
all saints and angels. He added, however, that though he
knew himself to be a sinner before God and his dear
Christian brethren, he wished at the same time to be
virtuous before the world, and that virtuous he was — so
much so that his enemies were not worthy to unloose the
latchet of his shoes. With regard to his letter to Henry he
acknowledged that in this, as in his letter to Duke George,
and others, he had been tempted to make a foolish trial of
humility. ' I am a fool, and remain a fool, for putting faith
so lightly in others.'

Luther reverts in this reply to enemies of a different
sort, who make his heart still heavier. These are to him
his ' tender children,' his ' little brothers,' his ' golden little
friends, the spirits of faction and the fanatics,' who would
not have known anything worth knowing either of Christ
or of the gospel, if Luther had not previously written about
it. He alluded, in particular, to the new ' Sacramentarians,'
and to Zwingli their leader.

Although this is the first time that Zwingli makes his

374 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

appearance in the history of Luther, and was never treated
by him otherwise than as a new offshoot of fanaticism, it
is important, in order to understand and appreciate him
aright, to bear in mind the fact that, himself only a few
months younger than Luther, he had been working since

1519 among the community at Zurich as an independent
and progressive Evangelical Eeformer, and had extended
his active influence over Switzerland, however little noticed
he had been at Wittenberg.

His career hitherto had been made easier for him than
was the case with Luther. The Grand Council of the city
of Zurich not only afforded him their protection, but in

1520 decreed full liberty to preach the Gospels and Epistles
of the Apostles in the sense he ascribed to them, and in
1523 formally declared their acceptance of his doctrines,
and abolished all idolatrous practices. No Kecess of a
Diet was here to disturb or threaten him. The Pope, for
political reasons, behaved with unwonted caution and discre-
tion : he delayed in this case for several years the ban of ex-
communication which he had pronounced so readily against
Luther. Even Hadrian, the man of firm character, to whom
Luther was an object of abhorrence, had only gracious and
insinuating words for the Zurich Eeformer. The Zurich
authorities, at the same time, acting in concert with Zwingli,
adopted severe measures against any intrusion of fanatics
and Anabaptists, nor did the entire population of the small
republic contain any great number of persons so thoroughly
neglected, and so difficult of influence by preachers, as was
the case with the country people in Germany. Well might
Zwingli press forward with a lighter heart than Luther's in
his work.

Personally, moreover, he had never passed through such
severe inward struggles as Luther, nor had ever wrestled
with such spiritual anguish and distress. The thought of
reconciliation with God, and the comforting of conscience by
the assurance of His forgiving mercy, were not with Zwingli,

ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 375

as with Luther, the centre and focus of his aspirations and
religious interests. He knew not that fervour and intense-

M^IULDRICUS ^JXINGLIUS,

MFOKMATOH E.T PAiTOK.

JidCLES 1^ T I GUR1N A. .

Obnf <£■ \s Jk ti\t ji octob. AW 15 *&*

Fig. 38.— Zwingli. (From an old engraving.)

ness which made Luther grasp at every means for bringing
home God's grace to congregations of believers, or to each

376 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

individual Christian according to his spiritual need. His
view, from the very first, extended rather to the totality of
religious truth, as revealed by God in Scripture, but sadly
disfigured in the creeds of the Church by man's additions and
misinterpretations ; and he aimed, far more than Luther,
at a reconstruction of moral, and especially of communal
life, in conformity with what the Word of God appeared to
demand. It was easier for him, therefore, to break with
the past : critical scruples against tradition did not weigh
so heavily on his conscience. His critical faculties, no
doubt, were sharpened by the humanistic culture he had
acquired. Compared with Luther's peculiar meditative
mood, and his half- choleric, half-melancholic temperament,
Zwingli evinced, in all his conduct and demeanour, a more
clear and sober intelligence, and a far calmer and more
easy disposition. His practical policy and conduct was
allied with a tendency to judicial severity, in contrast to
the free spirit which animated Luther. So rigorous and
narrow-minded was his zeal against the toleration of images,
that the Wittenberg theologians could not help detecting in
him a spirit akin to that of Carlstadt and the other fanatics.
In renouncing the Catholic doctrine of transubstantia-
tion and the idea of a sacrifice, Zwingli had rejected alto-
gether the supposition of a Eeal Presence of Christ's
Body at the Sacrament ; nay, as he declared later on, he
had never truly believed in it. He quoted the words of
Christ, 'The flesh profiteth nothing' (St. John vi. 63).
He would understand by the Sacrament simply a spiritual
feeding of the faithful, who, by the Word of God and His
Spirit, are enabled to enjoy in faith the salvation purchased
by the death of Christ. He saw no particular necessity for
offering this salvation to them by an administration of
Christ's Body, which had been given for them, through the
visible medium of the bread ; nor did he see how by so
doing their faith could be strengthened. In Luther's view
the practical significance of the Beal Presence lay in this,

ERASMUS, HENRY VIIL, AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 377

that in this special manner the Christian, who felt his need
of salvation, was assured, and became a partaker, of for-
giveness and communion with his Saviour. With Zwingli,
such a visible communication of the Divine gift of salva-
tion was opposed to his conception of God and the Divine
Nature ; just as this conception was opposed to that kind of
union of the Divine and human nature in Christ Himself,
by virtue of which, according to Luther, Christ was able
and willing to be actually present everywhere in the Sacra-
ment with His human, transfigured body. Inasmuch, said
Zwingli, as this spiritual feeding took place in faith every-
where, and not only at the Sacrament, it was no essential
part of the Sacrament ; the real essence whereof consisted
in this, that the faithful here confessed by that act their
common belief in the commemoration of Christ's death,
and, as members of His Body, pledged themselves to such
belief: he called the Sacrament the symbol of a pledge.
Luther himself, as we have seen, had taught from the first
that the Sacrament or Communion should represent the
union of Christians with the spiritual Body, or their com-
munion of the spirit, of faith, and of love. But with him
this communion was a secondary condition ; it was the feed-
ing on the Body of Christ Himself which was to promote
such communion with one another and, above all, with Christ.
Zwingli explained the word 'is' of our Lord, in His institution
of the Sacrament, to mean 'signifies.' Oecolampadius pre-
ferred the explanation that the bread was not the Body in the
proper sense of the word, but a symbol of the Body. In
point of fact, this was a distinction without a difference.

Such, briefly stated, was the doctrinal controversy in
which the two Reformers, the German and the Swiss, now
engaged, and which had first brought them into contact.

About the same time Luther made the acquaintance of
another opponent of his doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the
Silesian Kaspar Schwenkfeld. He also, like his friend
Valentin Krautwald, denied the Beal Presence ; but sought

378 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ClrC/RCH.

to interpret the words of institution in yet another manner,
connecting with his theory of their meaning deeper mystical
ideas of the means of salvation in general, which at least in
some quarters and to a small extent, have still survived.

In all of them, however — in Carlstadt, Zwingli, Schwenk-
feld, and the rest —Luther, as he wrote to his friends at
Beutlingen, perceived only one and the same puffed up, car-
nal mind, twisting about and struggling, to avoid having
to remain subject to the Word of God.

His first public declaration against Zwingli' s new doc-
trine was in 1526, in his preface to the Syngramma or
treatise of the fourteen Swabian ministers, written, as his
opening words express it, * against the new fanatics, who put
forth novel dreams about the Sacrament, and confuse the
world.'

Blow upon blow followed in the battle thus commenced.
While Oecolampadius was busy composing a reply to the
treatise and its preface, by which he in particular had
been assailed, Luther proceeded to follow up the attack.
The same year he published a ' Sermon on the Sacrament
of the Body and Blood of Christ, against the Fanatics ; '
and in the following spring a larger work with the title
*A Proof that Christ's Words of Institution, "This is My
Body," &c, still stand, against the Fanatics.' He con-
cludes the latter with the wish, 'God grant that they
may be converted to the truth ; if not, that they may twist
cords of vanity wherewith to catch themselves, and fall
into my hands.' Just then, however, Zwingli had written
against him, and to him, and the missive arrived at the
moment when he had issued the last-named work. Zwingli
wrote in Latin, entitling his tract, ' A Friendly Exposition
of the matter concerning the Sacrament,' and sent it with
a letter to Luther. These were followed almost imme-
diately by a reply, in German, to Luther's Sermon, under
the title of ' A Friendly Criticism of the Sermon of the
Excellent Martin Luther against the Fanatics.' Zwingli

ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 379

had scarcely had Luther's last written work in his hands
when he replied to it in a new treatise : ' A proof that Christ's
words, " This is My Body which is given for you," will for all
ages retain the ancient and only meaning, and that Martin
Luther in his last book has neither taught nor proved his
own and the Pope's meaning ; ' the title thus indicating
that Luther's and the Pope's meaning were one and the
same. Oecolampadius at the same time published ' A fair
Eeply ' to Luther's work. These were the writings of
the Sacramentarians which reached Luther during the
troublous time of the plague at Wittenberg, and filled him
with the pain of which we heard him then complain.

Zwingli's doctrine, from the time of its first announce-
ment, had seemed to Luther nothing but a visionary — nay,
' devilish ' perversion of the truth and the Word of God.
The progress of the controversy, so far from healing the
difference between them, tended only to sharpen and
intensify it. From the first hour the two Eeformers met
in opposition, the gulf was already fixed which henceforth
divided Evangelical Protestantism into two separate Con-
fessions and Church communities.

This is not the place to pass judgment on the matter
in controversy, or to trace minutely the leading points of
dogma involved in the dispute. Eegarding it, however, by
the light of history, it must be acknowledged and avowed
that this was no mere passionate quarrel about words alone
or propositions of dogmatic and metaphysical interest, but
devoid of any religious importance. Even in the attempts
to establish points of detail, reference was constantly made,
on both sides, to deep questions and views of Christian
religion.

Not only did Zwingli and Oecolampadius, in their anti-
literal and figurative interpretation of the words of institu-
tion, endeavour to support it by Scriptural analogies, more
or less appropriate, but in the practical objections they raised,
which Luthsr treated as over-curious subtleties of human

380 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

reason, they were actuated in reality by motives of a religious
character. In their view, a pure and reverential conception
of God was inconsistent with the idea of such an offertory of
Divine gifts, consisting of material elements and for mere
bodily nourishment. Not indeed that Luther, in accepting
the words in their literal sense, had become a slave to the
letter, in contradiction to the free and lofty spirit in which
he had elsewhere accepted the contents of Holy Scripture.
The question with him here was about a word of unique
importance — a word used by Christ on the threshold, so to
speak, of His death for our redemption ; and we have already
remarked what value he attached to the actual bodily pre-
sence indicated by that word, as assuring and imparting
salvation to those who partook at His table in faith.
No analogies to the contrary, derived from other figurative
expressions, would content him, though of course he never
denied that such expressions could and did occur through-
out the Bible. The text, ' The flesh profiteth nothing,' on
which Zwingli primarily relied, Luther understood as re-
ferring not to the flesh of Christ, but to the carnal mind of
man ; though he was careful to declare that it was not the
fleshly presence, as such, of our Saviour which gave the
Sacrament its value and importance ; nor must the feed-
ing of the communicants be a mere bodily feeding, but
that the word and promise of Christ were there present,
and that faith alone in that word and promise could make
the feeding bring salvation. God's glory was therein
exalted to the highest, that from His pitying love he made
Himself equal with the lowest.

In the doctrine concerning the person of the Redeemer,
a point to which the controversy further led, the Church had
hitherto affirmed simply a union of the Divine and human
natures, each retaining the attributes and qualities peculiar
to itself. Luther wished to see in the Man Jesus, the
Divine nature, which stooped to share humanity, conceived
and realised with deeper and more active fervour. As

ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 381

the Son of God He died for us, and as the Son of Man
He was exalted, with His body, to sit at the right hand of
God, which is not limited to any place, and is at once
nowhere and everywhere. It is true, Luther does not
proceed to explain how this body is still a human body, or
indeed a body at all. Zwingli, in keeping the two natures
distinct, wished to preserve the sublimity of his God and
the genuine humanity of the Kedeemer ; but in so doing,
he ended by making the two natures run parallel, so to
speak, in a mere stiff, dogmatic formulary, and by an arti-
ficial interpretation and analysis of the words of Scripture
touching the One Jesus, the Son of God and man.

The manner, however, in which this controversy was
conducted on both sides betrays an utter failure on the
part of either combatant to apprehend and do justice to
the religious and Christian motives, which, with all their
antagonism, never ceased to animate the opposite party.
Luther's attitude towards Zwingli we have already noticed.
We have seen how his zeal, in particular, prompted him too
often to see in the conduct of individual opponents simply
and solely the dominating influence of that spirit, from
which certain pernicious tendencies, according to his own
convictions, proceeded and had to be combated. Thus it
was in this instance. It was all visionary nonsense, nay,
sheer devilry, and be attacked it in language of proportionate
violence. From Zwingli a different attitude was to be ex-
pected, from the amicable titles of his treatises and the
personal correspondence with Luther which he himself
invited. He adopted here for the most part, as in other
matters, a calm and courteous tone, and exercised a power
of self-restraint to which Luther was a stranger. But with
a lofty mien, though in the same tone, he rejected Luther's
propositions, as the fruit of ludicrous obstinacy and
narrowness of mind, nay, as a retrograde step into Popery.
His letter, moreover, embittered the contest by importing
into it extraneous matter of reproach, such as, in particular,

382 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

Luther's conduct in the Peasants' War. Luther had reason
to say of him, ' He rages against me, and threatens me
with the utmost moderation and modesty.' Zwingli's later
replies evince a straightforwardness we miss in the earlier
ones, but they are marred by much rudeness and coarseness
of language, and display throughout a lofty self-consciousness
and a triumphant assurance of victory.

Luther, after reading the last-mentioned treatises of
Zwingli and Oecolampadius, resolved to publish one answer
more, the last ; for Satan, he said, must not be suffered to
hinder him further in the prosecution of other and more
important matters. At this time he was particularly anxious
to complete his translation of the Bible, being now hard at
work with the books of the Prophets. His answer to
Zwingli grew ultimately into the most exhaustive of all his
contributions to the dispute. It appeared in March 1528
under the title of ' Confession concerning the Lord's Supper.'
He went over once more all the most important questions
and arguments which had formed the subject of contention,
expounded his ideas more fully on the Person and Presence
of Christ, and explained calmly and impressively the passages
of Scripture relating thereto. He concluded with a short
summary of his own confession of Christian faith, that men
might know, both then and after his death, how carefully
and diligently he had thought over everything, and that
future teachers of error might not pretend that Luther would
have taught many things otherwise at another time and
after further reflection.

Zwingli and Oecolampadius hastened at once to prepare
new pamphlets in reply, and to publish them with a dedi-
cation to the Elector John and the Landgrave Philip. But
Luther adhered to his resolve. He let them have the last
word, as he had done with Erasmus. They had not con-
tributed anything new to the dispute.

While Luther was writing his last treatise against the
Sacramentarians, he found himself obliged to issue a fresh

ERASMUS, HENRY VIII., AND THE ZWINGLIANS. 383

protest against the Anabaptists. This was a tract en-
titled ' On Anabaptism ; to two pastors.' But "while de-
nouncing these sectaries, he protested strongly against the
manner in which the civil authorities were dealing with
them, by the infliction of punishment and even death on
account of their principles, even when no seditious conduct
could be alleged against them. Everyone, he said, should
be allowed to believe what he liked. Similarly he wrote to
Nuremberg shortly after, where as we have already men-
tioned, the new errors were spreading, saying that he could
in no wise admit the right to execute false prophets or
teachers ; it was quite enough to expel them. Luther in
this distinguished himself above most of the men of the
Eeformation. At Zurich, while Zwingli was accusing Luther
of cruelty, Anabaptists were being drowned in public.

The foreground is now occupied again by the struggle
with Catholicism — in other words, by the contest with the
German princes who were hostile to the Eeformation, and
with the Emperor himself and the majority of the Diet.

384 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTEE IV.

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY WAR WITH THE TURKS

THE CONFERENCE AT MARBURG, 1529.

In the war against the Pope and France an imperial army
in 1527 had stormed and plundered Piome. God, as Luther
said, had so ordained, that the Emperor, who persecuted
Luther for the Pope, had to destroy the Pope for Luther.
But Charles V. was not then in a position to break with the
Head of the Church. In the treaty concluded with the
Pope in November, mention was again made of extirpating
the Lutheran heresy. And whilst in Italy the war with
France was still going on, the Emperor in the spring of
1528 sent an ambassador to the German Courts, to rouse
fresh zeal for the Church in this matter.

But before the threatened danger actually reached the
Evangelical party, it was preceded by disquieting rumours
and false alarms.

In March 1528 a new Diet was to assemble at Piatisbon.
Luther heard in February of strange designs being medi-
tated there by the Papists. His wish was that Charles's
brother Ferdinand might be detained in Hungary, where
he was occupied in fighting the Turks and their protege,
Prince John Zapolya of Transylvania, and that the Diet
should be prevented from meeting. Luther's adversaries,
on the other hand, feared an unfavourable decision from
the Estates, and the Emperor at length peremptorily for-
bade their meeting.

Just about this time, John Pack, a steward of the
chancery who had been dismissed by Duke George of

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 385

Saxony, came to the Landgrave Philip and informed him
of a league concluded with King Ferdinand by the Dukes
of Saxony and Bavaria, the Electors of Mayence and
Brandenburg, and several Bishops, to attack the Evan-
gelical princes. The Electorate of Saxony, where John
was just then engaged in completing the re-organisation
of the Church, was to be partitioned among them, and
Hesse was to be allotted to Duke George. John and
Philip quickly formed an offensive and defensive alliance,
and called out their troops. The whole scheme, as was
shortly proved beyond dispute, was an invention, and the
pretended treaty a forgery, of Pack, who had been paid a
large sum for his revelations. Luther himself had no doubt
of the genuineness of the document, and persisted even
afterwards in his belief. But while the Landgrave, with
his habitual vehemence, was impatient to strike quickly,
before their enemies were prepared, both Luther and the
other Wittenberg theologians did their utmost to restrain
their sovereign from any act of violence. Luther earnestly
bade him remember the words : ' Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth ' (St. Matt. v. 5), — 'As much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men' (Bom. xii. 18), —
4 Those that take the sword, shall perish with the sword '
(St. Matt. xxvi. 52). He warned them that 'one durst not
paint the devil over one's door, nor ask him to stand god-
father.' He feared a civil war among the princes, which
would be worse than a rising of the peasants, and utterly
ruinous to Germany. Philip accordingly stayed his hand,
until the reply of his supposed enemies, from whom he
demanded an explanation, puzzled him as to the meaning
of Pack's overtures.

A private letter sent by Luther to Link, in which he
spoke of George as a fool, and said he mistrusted his
promises, led afterwards, on George's learning its contents,
to a new and bitter quarrel between the two. The Duke
made a violent attack on -Luther in a pamphlet, which

c c

386 RECOXSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

appeared early in 1521, to which the latter replied with equal
violence, denouncing the abuse of ' secret (i.e. private) and
stolen letters.' George retorted in the same strain, and
persuaded his cousin John, to whom he addressed a formal
complaint, to prohibit Luther from printing anything more
against him without Electoral permission ; — a step which
effectually silenced his opponent.

On November 30, 1528, the Emperor summoned a Diet
to meet at Spires on February 21 of the following year, in
order that decisive and energetic measures should be taken
— as recommended once more by the Pope — to secure the
unity and sole supremacy of the Catholic Church. The chief
subjects named for deliberation were, the armament against
the Turks, and the innovations in matters of religion.

As regards the war against the Turks, Luther, who had
previously let fall some occasional remarks about certain
wholesome effects it would have in checking the designs of
the Papacy, let his voice be heard, notwithstanding, in
summoning the whole nation to do battle against the fearful
and horrible enemy, whom they had hitherto suffered so
shamefully to oppress them. Since the latter part of the
summer of 1528 he had been engaged upon a pamphlet ' On
the War against the Turks,' the publication of which was
accidentally delayed till March, when he was busy with his
Catechism.

In this pamphlet he spoke to his fellow- Germans, with
the noblest fire and in the fulness of his strength, as a
Christian, a citizen, and a patriot, and with a clearness
and decision derived from convictions and principles of his
own. He had no wish to preach a new crusade ; for the
sword had nothing to do with religion, but only with
bodily and temporal things. But he exhorted and en-
couraged the authority, whom God had entrusted with
temporal power, to take up the sword against the all-
devouring enemy, with sure trust in God and certain
confidence in his mission. By the ' authority ' he meant

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 387

the Emperor, in whom he recognised the head of Germany.
He it was who must fight against the Turks ; under his
banner they must march, and upon that banner should be
seen the command of God, which said ' Protect the
righteous, but punish the wicked.' ' But,' asked Luther,
1 how many are there who can read those words on the
Emperor's banner, or who seriously believe in them ? '
He complained that neither Emperor nor princes properly
believed that they were Emperor and princes, and there-
fore thought little about the protection they owed to their
subjects. Further on he rebuked the princes for letting
matters go on as if they had no concern in them, instead
of advising and assisting the Emperor with all the means
in their power. He knew well the pride of some of the
princes, who would like to see the Emperor a nonentity
and themselves the heroes and masters. Rebellion, he said,
was punished in the case of the peasants ; but if rebellion
were punished also among princes and nobles, he fancied
there would be very few of them left. He feared that
the Turk would bring some such punishment upon them,
and he prayed God to avert it. Finally, he bade them
remember not to buckle on their armour too loosely,
and underrate their enemies, as Germans were too prone
to do. He warned them not to tempt God by inadequate
preparation, and sacrifice the poor Germans at the
shambles, nor as soon as the victory was won to ' sit down
again and carouse until the hour of need returned.'

At Spires, however, the whole zeal of the imperial
commissaries and of the Catholic Estates was directed, not
against the common enemy of Germany and Christendom,
but to the internal affairs of the Church. They succeeded
in passing a resolution or article, declaring that those
States which had held to the Edict of Worms should
continue to impose its execution on their subjects ; the
other States should abstain at least from further innova-
tions. The celebration of the mass was not to be obstructed,

c c 2

388 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

nor was anyone to be prevented from hearing it. The
subjects of one State were never to be protected by another
State against their own. By these means, not only was
the Eeformation prevented from spreading farther, but it
was cut off at a blow in those places where it had already
been in full swing. By the decision respecting the mass,
room was given for attempts to reinstate it on Evangelical
territory ; by the other decision respecting the subjects of
different States, power was given to the bishops of the
German Empire to coerce, if they chose, the local clergy,
as their subordinates. Further steps in the exercise of this
power could easily be anticipated.

This resolution of the majority wTas answered on April
19 by the Evangelical party with a formal protest, -rom
which they received the name then* descendants still uear
— Protestants. They insisted that the Imperial Becess
unanimously agreed on at the first Diet of Spires in 1526
could only be altered by the unanimous consent of the
States ; and they declared ■ that, even apart from that, in
matters relating to the honour of God and the salvation of
our souls, every man must stand alone before God and
give account for himself.' In these matters, therefore,
they could not submit to the resolution of the majority.

The majority, however, as well as Ferdinand, the
Emperor's brother and representative, refused to admit
their right of opposition. The minority must prepare
to submit to coercion and the exercise of force. Against
this the Elector and Landgrave concluded, on April 22,
a * secret agreement ' with the cities of Nuremberg,
Strasburg, and Ulm. The Landgrave was eager that
this alliance should be strengthened by the admission of
Zurich and the other Evangelical towns in Switzerland.
And a similar proposal was made to him by Zwingli, who,
in connection with his ecclesiastical labours, was carrying
on a bold and high policy, in striving to effect an alliance
with the republic of Venice and the King of France against

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 389

the Emperor. He certainly far overrated the importance
of his town in the great affairs of the world, and placed a
strangely naive confidence in the French monarch.

Luther, on the contrary, set his face as resolutely now
as in the affair of Pack, against any appeal to the sword in
support of the gospel. He would have his friends rely on
God and not on the wit of man ; and, with regard to the
last Diet, he was quite content that God had not allowed
their enemies to rage even more. He was willing even to
trust to the Emperor for relief ; the Evangelical party, he
said, should represent to his Majesty how their sole concern
was for the gospel and for the removal of abuses which
no one could deny to exist ; how, at the same time, they
had resisted the iconoclasts and other riotous fanatics, nay,
how the suppression of the Anabaptists and the peasants
was pre-eminently due to them ; and how they had been
the first to bring to light and vindicate the rights and
majesty of authority. A representation of this kind, he
hoped, must surely have an influence on the Emperor.
He flatly rejected any alliance with those,- namely, the
Swiss, — who ' strive thus against God and the Sacrament ; '
such an alliance would disgrace the gospel and draw down
their sins upon their heads. This opinion, in which the
other Wittenberg theologians, and especially Melancthon,
concurred, determined that of the Elector.

The Landgrave did his utmost to remove this obstacle
to an alliance with the Swiss. He urged a personal con-
ference between the rival theologians on the question of
the Sacrament. Luther and Melancthon were strongly
opposed to such a step, inasmuch as the course of the
controversy hitherto had not revealed a single point which
offered any hope of reconciliation or mutual approach.
Luther reminded him how, ten years before, the Leipzig
disputation served only to make bad worse. Intrigues,
moreover, were apprehended from the other side, lest the
Lutherans should be held up to odium as the enemies of

39Q RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

unity and obstacles to an alliance, and the Landgrave be
alienated from them. Melancthon, indeed, had brought
with him from Spires, where he had been staying with
Philip, a suspicion that the latter inclined to the
Zwinglians, and was right in his conjecture at least so
far, that their doctrine did not appear to him nearly so
questionable as to the Wittenbergers. But the simple
fear of consequences made Luther unwilling and unable
to refuse the Landgrave's urgent invitation, backed as it
was with the concurrence of the Elector. He wrote to him
on June 23, declaring his readiness to ' render him this
useless service with all diligence,' and only entreated him
to consider once more whether it would do more good than
harm. The conference was to take place at the Castle of
Marburg on Michaelmas day (1529).

Luther's sentiments in the interval are expressed in a
letter which he wrote on August 2 to a distant friend, the
pastor Brismann at Biga. ' Philip (Melancthon) and myself,'
he says, ' after many refusals and much vain resistance,
have been at length compelled to give our consent, be-
cause of the Landgrave's importunity ; but I know not yet
whether our going will come to anything. We have no
hopes of any good result, but suspect artifice on all sides,
that our enemies may be able to boast of having gained the
victory. ... I am pretty well in body, but inwardly
weak, suffering like Peter from want of faith ; but the
prayers of my brethren support me. . . . That youth of
Hesse is restless, and boiling over with projects. . . . Thus
everywhere we are threatened with more danger from our
own people than from our enemies. Satan rests not, in
his bloodthirstiness, from the work of murder and bloodshed.'

In the same letter Luther tells of the panic caused
by a new pestilence — the Sweating Sickness — which had
appeared in Germany and at Wittenberg itself. It was a
plague, known already many years before, which used to
attack its victims with fever, sweat, thirst, intense pain and

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 391

exhaustion, and snatch them off with fearful rapidity.
Luther knew well the danger of it when once it actually
appeared. But he watched without terror the supposed
symptoms of its appearance at Wittenberg, and remarked
that the sickness there was mainly caused by fright. On
the 27th he told another friend how the night before he
had awoke bathed in sweat, and tormented with anxious
thoughts, so much so, that had he given way to them he
might very likely have fallen ill like so many others. He
named also several of his acquaintances, whom he had
driven out of bed, when they lay there fancying themselves
ill, and who were now laughing at their own fancies.

The Emperor, meanwhile, concluded a final treaty with
the Pope on June 29, and on August 5 made peace with King
Francis. By this treaty of Barcelona he pledged himself to
provide a suitable antidote to the poisonous infection of the
new opinions. By the peace of Cambray he renewed the
promise, given in the treaty of Madrid, of a mutual co-
operation of the two monarchs for the extirpation of heresy.

At Marburg the meeting now actually took place between
the theological champions of that great religious movement
which strove to set up the gospel against the domination of
Borne, and was therefore condemned by Borne as heretical.
It was now to be decided whether the anti-Bomanists
could not become united auiong themselves ; whether the
two hostile parties in this movement could not, at least in
face of the common danger, join to make a powerful united
Church. Zwingli'.s political conduct, and the cheerful and
submissive readiness with which he had complied with the
Landgrave's proposal, afforded ground for expecting that,
v/hile steadfastly adhering to his own doctrine, he would
arnbrace such an alliance, notwithstanding their doctrinal
differences. Everything now really depended upon Luther.

Zwingli and Oecolampadius met the Strasburg theo-
logians, Butzer and Hedio, and Jacob Sturm, the leading
citizen of that town, on September 29, at Marburg. The

392 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

next day they were joined by Luther and Melancthon, to-
gether with Jonas and Cruciger from Wittenberg and
Myconius from Gotha ; and afterwards came the preachers
Osiander from Nuremberg, Brenz from Schwabish Hall> and
Stephen Agricola from Augsburg. The Landgrave enter-
tained them in a friendly and sumptuous manner at his castle.

On October 1, the day after his arrival, Luther was
summoned by the Landgrave to a private conference with
Oecolampadius, towards whom he had always felt more
confidence, and whom he had greeted in a friendly manner
when they met. Melancthon, being of a calmer tempera-
ment, was left to confer with Zwingli. As regards the
main subject of the controversy, the question of the Sacra-
ment, no practical result was arrived at between the parties.
But on certain other points, in which Zwingli had been
suspected by the Wittenbergers, and in which he partly
differed from them — for instance, concerning the Church
doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and the Godhead of
Christ, and the doctrine of original sin — he offered ex-
planations to Melancthon, the result of which was that the
two came to an agreement.

The general debate began on Sunday, October 2, at six
o'clock in the morning The theologians assembled for that
purpose in an apartment in the east wing of the castle,
before the Landgrave himself, and a number of nobles and
guests of the court, including the exiled Duke Ulrich of
Wurtemberg. Out of deference to the audience, the language
used was to be German. Zwingli had wished, instead, that
anyone who desired it might be admitted to hear, but that
the discussion should be held in Latin, which he could speak
with greater fluency. The four theologians last mentioned,
who were to conduct the debate, sat together at a table.
Luther, however, assumed the lead of his side ; Melancthon
only put in a few remarks here and there. The Landgrave's
chancellor, Feige, opened the proceedings with a formal
address.

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 393

Luther at the outset requested that his opponents should
first express their opinions upon other points of doctrine
which seemed to him doubtful ; but he waived this request
on Oecolampadius's replying that he was not aware that
such doubts involved any contradiction to Luther's doctrine,
and on Zwingli's appealing to his agreement recently
effected with Melancthon. All he himself had to do, said
Luther, was to declare publicly, that with regard to those
doubts he disagreed entirely with certain expressions con-
tained in then' earlier writings. The chief question was
then taken in hand.

The arguments and counter-arguments, set forth by the
combatants at various times in their writings, were now
succinctly but exhaustively recapitulated. But they were
neither strengthened further nor enlarged. The disputants
were constrained to listen during this debate to the oral
utterances of their opponents with more deference than
they had done for the most part in their literary controversy,
with its hasty and passionate expressions on each side.

Luther from the outset took his stand, as he had done
before, on the simple words of institution, ' This is my
Body.' He had chalked them down before him on the table.
His opponents, he maintained, ought to give to God the
honour due to Him, by believing His ' pure and unadorned
Word.'

Zwingli and Oecolampadius, on the contrary, relied
mainly, as heretofore, on the words of Christ in the sixth
chapter of St. John, where He evidently alluded to a
spiritual feeding, and declared that ' the flesh profiteth
nothing.' Honour must be given to God, he said, by
accepting from Him this clear interpretation of His Word.
Luther agreed with them, as previously, that Jesus there
spoke only of the spiritual partaking by the faithful, but
maintained that in the Sacrament He had, in his words
of institution, superadded the offer of His Body for the
strengthening of faith and that these words were not

394 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

useless or unmeaning, but of potent efficacy tbrough the
Word of God. ' I would eat even crab-apples,' said Luther,
1 without asking why, if the Lord put them before me,
and said " Take and eat." He fired up when Zwingli
answered that the passage in St. John ' broke Luther's
neck,' the expression not being as familiar to him as to the
Swiss : the Landgrave himself had to step in as a mediator
and quiet them.

In the afternoon Luther's opponents proceeded to argue
that Christ could not be present with His Body at the
Sacrament, because His Body was in heaven, and the body,
as such, was confined within circumscribed limits, and
could only be present in one place at a time. Luther then
asked, with reference to the objection that Christ was in
heaven and at the right hand of God, why Zwingli insisted
on taking those words in such a nakedly literal sense.
He declined to enter upon explanations as to the locality of
the Body, though he could well have disputed for a long
time on that subject : for the omnipotence of God, he said,
by virtue whereof that Body was present everywhere at the
Sacrament, stood above all mathematics. Of greater weight
to him must have been the argument of Zwingli, which at
any rate had a Christian and biblical aspect, that Christ
with His flesh became like his human brethren, while they
again at the last day are to be fashioned like unto his
glorified Body, though incapable, nevertheless, of being in
different places at the same time. Luther rejected this argu-
ment, however, on the ground of the distinction he was
careful to draw between the actual attributes which Christ
possessed in common with all Christians, and those which
He did not so possess at all, or possessed in a manner
peculiar to Himself, and exalting him far above mankind.
For example, Christ had no wife, as men have.

The next day, Sunday, Luther preached the early
morning sermon. He connected his remarks with the
Gospel for the day, and dwelt with freshness and power,

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 395

but without any reference to the controversy then pending,
on forgiveness of sin and justification by faith.

The disputation, however, was resumed later on in the
morning. The subject of discussion was still the presence
of Christ's Body in- the Sacrament. Luther persisted in
refusing to regard that Body as one involving the idea of
limits : the Body here was not local or circumscribed by
bounds. The Swiss, on the other hand, did not deny the
possibility of a miracle, whereby God might permit a body
to be in more than one place at the same time ; but then
thej demanded proof that such a miracle was really
effected with the Body of Christ. Luther again appealed
to the words before him : ' This is My Body.' He said : ' I
cannot slur over the words of our Lord. I cannot but
acknowledge thac the Body of Christ is there.' Here
Zwingli quickly interrupted him with the remark that
Luther himself restricted Christ's Body to a place, for the
adverb \ there ' was an adverb of place. Luther, however,
refused to have his off-hand expression so interpreted, and
again deprecated the mathematical argument. The same
day, the second of the debate, Zwingli and Oecolampadius
sought to fortify their theory by evidence adduced from
Christian antiquity. On some points at least they were
able to appeal to Augustine. But Luther put a different
construction on the passages they quoted, and refused
altogether to accept him as an authority against Scripture.
That evening the disputation was concluded by each party
protesting that then doctrine remained unrefuted by Scrip-
ture, and leaving their opponents to the judgment of God,
by whom they might still be converted. Zwingli broke
into tears.

Philip in vain endeavoured to bring the contending
parties to a closer understanding. Just then the news
came that the fearful pestilence, the Sweating Sickness, had
broken out in the town. All further proceedings were
stopped at once, and everyone hurried away with his

396 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

guests. The Landgrave only hastily arranged that in
regard to the points of Christian belief in which it was
doubtful how far the Swiss agreed with the Evangelical
faith, a series of propositions should be drawn up by
Luther, and signed by the theologians on both sides. This
was done on the Monday. They are the fifteen ' Articles
of Marburg.' They expressed unity in all other doctrines,
and in the Sacrament also, in so far as they declared that
the Sacrament of the Altar is a Sacrament of the true
Body and Blood of Christ, and that the ' spiritual eating '
of that Body is the primary condition required. The only
point left in dispute was ' whether the true Body and Blood
of Christ are present bodily in the bread and wine.'

If we compare the manner in which this disputation
at Marburg was conducted with the previous character of
the contest, in which the one party had denounced their
opponents as diabolical fanatics, and the other as reaction-
ary Papists and worshippers of ' a god made of bread,' it
will be evident that some results of importance at least
had been attained by the discussion itself and the mode in
which it had been held. The tone here, from first to last,
was more courteous, nay, even friendly in comparison.
And the moderation now used by these frank, outspoken
men, so passionately excited hitherto, could not have re-
sulted solely from self-imposed restraint. Luther, when he
wished to speak very emphatically, addressed his opponents
as 'my dearest sirs.' Brenz, who was an eye-witness,
tells us one might have thought Luther and Zwingli were
brothers. And, in fact, on all the main doctrines but that
one they agreed. Finer distinctions of theory, which
might have furnished food for argument, were mutually
waived. But the essential divergence between them on
the one great point of the Sacrament, and the spirit mani-
fested in regard to it, made it impossible for Luther to hold
out to Zwingli the right hand of fellowship, which the
latter and his party so earnestly desired. Luther held to

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398 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

his opinion : ' Yours is a different spirit from ours.' His com-
panions unanimously agreed with him that though they
might entertain sentiments of friendship and Christian
love towards them, they dared not acknowledge them as
brethren in Christ. In the ' Articles ' the only mention
made of this matter was that although they had not yet
agreed on that point, still ' each party should treat the
other with Christian charity, so far as each one's conscience
would permit.'

On Tuesday afternoon Luther left Marburg, and set
out on his journey homeward. At the wish of the Elector
he travelled by way of Schleiz, where John was then
consulting with the Margrave George of Brandenburg
about the Protestant alliance. They desired of Luther a
short and comprehensive confession of evangelical faith, as
members of which they wished to enrol themselves. Luther
immediately compiled one accordingly, upon the basis of
the Marburg Articles, making some additions and strength-
ening some expressions in accordance with his own views.
About October 18 he returned to Wittenberg.

This confession was submitted without delay to a meet-
ing of Protestants at Schwabach. The result was, that
Ulm and Strasburg declined to subscribe a compact from
which the Swiss were excluded.

Within the league itself, the question was now seriously
considered, how far the Protestant States might go, in the
event of the Emperor really seeking to coerce them to sub-
mission— whether, in a word, they could venture to oppose
force to force. Luther's opinion, however, on this point
remained unshaken. Whatever civil law and counsellors
might say, it was conclusive for them as Christians, in his
opinion, that civil authority was ordained by God, and that
the Emperor, as the lord paramount of Germany, was the
supreme civil authority in the nation. His first considera-
tion was the imperial dignity, as he conceived it, and the
relative ix>sition and duties of the princes of the Empire,

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 399

As subjects of the Emperor, he regarded these princes in
the same light as he regarded their own territorial sub-
jects, the burgomasters of the towns and the various other
magnates and nobles, to whom they themselves had never
conceded any right to oppose, either by protest or force,
their own regulations, as territorial sovereigns, in matters
affecting the Church. Not, indeed, that he required a
simply passive obedience, however badly the authorities
and the Emperor might behave ; on the contrary, he ad-
mitted the possibility of having to depose the Emperor.
1 Sin itself,' he said, ' does not destroy authority and obe-
dience ; but the punishment of sin destroys them, as, for
instance, if the Empire and the Electors were unanimously
to dethrone the Emperor, and make him cease to be one.
But so long as he remains unpunished and Emperor, no
one should refuse him obedience.' Nothing, therefore, in
his opinion, short of a common act of the Estates could
provide a remedy against an unjust, tyrannical, and law-
breaking Emperor, while at present it was apparent that
Charles and the majority of the Diet were agreed. Hence
he refused to recognise the right of individual States to an
appeal to force, for his theory of the German Empire in-
volved the idea of a firm and united community or State,
and not in any way that of a league or federation, the
independent members of which might take up arms against
a breach of their articles of agreement. This theory was
shared by his Elector and the Nurembergers. Just as
these Protestants for conscience sake had refused obedience
to the resolution of the Diet at Spires, so they felt them-
selves bound by conscience to submit to the consequences
of that refusal. Luther's opinion, therefore, as to the
proper attitude for the Protestant States was the same as
he had expressed to the Elector Frederick on his return
from the Wartburg. It was their duty, he said, if God
should permit matters to go so far, to allow the Emperor
to enter their territory and act against their subjects, with-

400 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

out, however, giving their assent or assisting him. But he
added : ' It is sheer want of faith not to trust to God to
protect us, without any wit or power of man. ... "In
quietness and confidence shall be your strength." '

Meanwhile Luther was anxious to respond still further
to the call of duty against the Turks. Their multitudinous
hosts had advanced as far as Vienna, and had severely
harassed that city, which, though defended with heroic
valour, was but badly fortified. A general assault was made
in force while Luther was on his homeward journey. The
news stirred him to his inmost soul. He ascribed to it, and
to their god, the devil, the violent temptations and anguish
of soul from which he was then suffering again. Immediately
after his return, he undertook to write a ' War sermon
against the Turks.' On October 26 he received the tidings
that they were compelled to retreat. This was a ' heaven-
sent miracle ' to him. But though his former exhortations
and warnings had seemed to many exaggerated, he was right
in perceiving that the danger was only averted. He published
his sermon, a new edition of which had to be issued with the
new year.

He saw in the Turks the fulfilment of the prophecy of
Ezekiel and the Bevelation of St. John about Gog and
Magog, and therewith a judgment of God for the punish-
ment of corrupt Christendom. But just as in his first
pamphlet he had called on the authorities, in virtue of
their appointment by God, to protect their own people
against the enemy, so he now wished further to make all
German Christians strong in conscience and full of courage,
to take the field under their banner, according to God's
command. He set before them the example of the ' beloved
St. Maurice and his companions,' and of many other saints,
who had served in arms their Emperor as knights or citizens.
He would, if danger came in earnest, ' fain have, whoever
could, defend themselves, — young and old, husband and
wife, man-servant and maid-servant,' just as, according to

CHURCH DIVISIONS IN GERMANY. 401

ancient Eoman writers, the German wives and maidens
fought together with the men. He looked on no house as
so mean that it might not do something to repel the foe.
Was it not better to be slain at home, in obedience to God,
than to be taken prisoners and dragged away like cattle to
be sold ? At the same time he exhorted and encouraged
those whom this misfortune befell, that, as Jeremiah
admonished the Jews in Babylon, they should be patient
in prison, and cling firmly to the faith, and neither through
their misery nor through the hypocritical worship of the
Turks, allow themselves to be seduced into becoming rene-
gades.

Such is what he preached to the people, while he had to
complain in his letters to friends that ' the Emperor Charles
threatens us even still more dreadfully than does the Tui k ;
so that on both sides we have an Emperor as our enemy, an
Eastern and a Western one.' And in those days also he
expressed his opinion that those who confessed the gospel
should keep their hands ' unsoiled by blood and crime ' as
regards their Emperor, and, even though his behaviour
might be a ' very threat of ths devil,' should keep steadfastly
to their God, with prayer, supplication, and hope, — to that
God Whose manifest help had hitherto been so abundantly
vouchsafed to them.

D D

4Q2 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER V.

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG AND LUTHER AT COBURG, 1530.

A proclamation of the Emperor, convoking a new Diet at
Augsburg for April 8, 1530, seemed now to indicate a more
pacific demeanour. For in assigning to this Diet the task of
consulting ' how best to deal with and determine the differ-
ences and division in the holy faith and the Christian re-
ligion,'it desired, for this object, that ' every man's opinions,
thoughts, and notions should be heard in love and charity,
and carefully weighed, and that men should thus be brought
in common to Christian truth, and be reconciled.' The
Emperor by no means meant, as might be inferred from this
proclamation, that the two opposing parties should treat
and arrange with each other on an equal footing ; the
rights of the Romish Church remained, as before, unalter-
ably fixed. He only wished to avoid, if possible, the dangers
of internal warfare. Even the Papal legate Campeggio,
agreed that conciliatory measures might first be tried ; the
arrangements for the visitation of the Saxon Electorate
were already construed at Rome, as indeed by many
German Catholics, into a sign that people there were
frightened at the so-called freedom of the gospel, and were
inclined to return to the old system. But Luther at this
moment displayed again the confidence which he always
so gladly reposed in his Emperor. He announced on
March 14 to Jonas, then absent on the business of the visi-
tation : ' The Emperor Charles writes that he will come in
person to Augsburg, to settle everything peaceably.' The
Elector John immediately instructed his theologians to

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 403

draw up for him articles in view of the proceedings at the
Diet, embodying a statement of their own opinions. They
were also required to hold themselves in readiness to accom-
pany him on his journey to Augsburg. There was, however,
no hurry about arriving there ; for the Emperor came thither
so slowly from Italy, that it was found impossible to meet
on the day originally appointed.

On April 3 Luther, Melancthon, and Jonas went to the
Elector at Torgau, in order to start with him from there.
He took Spalatin also with him, and Agricola as preacher.
The 10th, Palm Sunday, they spent at Weimar, where the
prince wished to partake of the sacrament. At Coburg,
where they arrived on the 15th, they expected to receive
further news as to the day fixed for the actual opening of
the Diet. Luther preached here on Easter Day, and on
the following Monday and Thursday, upon the Easter texts
and the grand acts of Redemption.

On Friday, the 22nd, the Elector received an intima-
tion from the Emperor to appear at Augsburg at the end of
the month. The next morning he set off at once with his
companions. Luther, however, was to remain behind. The
man on whom lay the ban of the Empire and Church could
not possibly, however favourably inclined the Emperor
might be towards him, have appeared before the Emperor,
the Estates, and the delegates of the Pope ; moreover,
no safe-conduct would have availed him. Luther seems,
nevertheless, to have been ingenuous enough to think
the contrary. At least, he wrote to a friend that the
Elector had bidden him remain at Coburg; why, he
knew not. To another friend, however, he alleged as a
reason, that his going would not have been safe. But
his prince was anxious to keep him at any rate as close by
as possible, at a safe place on the borders of his territory
in the direction of Augsburg, so that he might be able to
obtain advice from him in case of need. Moreover, he con-
templated the possibility of his being summoned later on

D D 2

404 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

to Augsburg. A message from the one place to the othei
took, at that time, four days as a rule.

Accordingly, on the night of the 22nd, Luther was con-
veyed to the fortress overlooking the town of Coburg.
This was the residence assigned to him.

His first day here passed by unoccupied. A box which
he had brought, containing papers and other things, had
not yet been delivered to him. He did not even see any
governor of the castle. So he looked around him leisurely
from the height, which offered a wide and varied prospect,
and examined the apartments now opened for his use.
The principal part of the castle, the so-called Prince's
Building, had been assigned him, and he was given at
once the keys of all the rooms it contained. The one
which he chose as his sitting-room is still shown. He was
told that over thirty people took their meals at the castle.

But his thoughts were still with his distant friends.
He wrote that afternoon to Melancthon, Jonas, and Spalatin.
' Dearest Philip,' he begins to Melancthon, ' we have at last
reached our Sinai, but we will make a Sion of this Sinai,
and here will I build three tabernacles, one to the Psalms,
one to the Prophets, and one to iEsop. ... It is a very
attractive place, and just made for study; only your absence
grieves me. My whole heart and soul are stirred and
incensed against the Turks and Mahomet, when I see this
intolerable raging of the devil. Therefore I shall pray and cry
to God, nor rest until I know that my cry is heard in heaven.
The sad condition of our German Empire distresses you
more.' Then, after expressing a wish that the Lord might
send his friend refreshing sleep, and free his heart from
care, he told him about his residence at the castle, in the
' empire of the birds.' In his letters to Jonas and Spalatin
he indulged in humorous descriptions of the cries of the
ravens and jackdaws which he had heard since four o'clock
in the morning. A whole troop, he said, of sophists
and schoolmen were gathered around him. Here he had

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 405

also his Diet, composed of very proud kings, dukes, and
grandees, who busied themselves about the empire and
sent out incessantly their mandates through the air. This
year, he heard, they had arranged a crusade against the
wheat, barley, and other kinds of corn, and these fathers
of the Fatherland already hoped for grand victories and
heroic deeds. This, said Luther, he wrote in fun, but in
serious fun, to chase away if possible the heavy thoughts
which crowded on his mind. A few days later he enlarged
further on this sportive simile in a letter to his Wittenberg
table-companions, i.e. the young men of the university who,
according to custom, boarded with him. He was delighted
to see how valiantly these knights of the Diet strutted about
and wiped their bills, and he hoped they might some day
or other be spitted on a hedge-stake. He fancied he could
hear all the sophists and papists with their lovely voices
around him, and he saw what a right useful folk they were,
who ate up everything on the earth and ' whiled away the
heavy time with chattering.' He was glad, however, to
have heard the first nightingale, who did not often venture
to come in April.

As companions he had his amanuensis, Veit Dietrich
from Nuremberg, and his nephew Cyriac Kaufmann from
Mansfeld, a young student. The former, born in 1506, had
been at the university of "Wittenberg since 1523 ; he soon
became preacher in his native town, where he distin-
guished himself by his loyalty and courage. They were
all hospitably entertained at the castle. Luther, in these
comfortable quarters, let his beard grow again, as he had
formerly done at the Wartburg.

In that same letter to Melancthon, Luther mentioned
several writings which he had in prospect. His chief work
was a public ' Admonition to the Clergy assembled at the
Diet at Augsburg.' He wished, as he said in the intro-
duction, since he could not personally appear at the Diet,
at least to be among them in writing with this his ' dumb

/

406

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

and weak message ; ' which he had expressed, however, in
the strongest and most forcible language at his command.
As for his own cause, he declared that for it no Diet was
necessary. It had been brought thus far by the true
Helper and Adviser, and there it would remain. He re-

Fig. 40. — Veit Dietrich, as Pastor of Nuremberg.
(From an old woodcut.)

minded them once more of the chief scandals and iniquities
against which he had been forced to contend ; he warned
them not to strain the strings too tightly, lest perhaps a
new rebellion might arise ; and he promised them that if
only they would leave the gospel free, they should be left
in undisturbed possession of their principalities, their privi-

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 407

leges, and their property, which in fact was all they cared
for. This tract was already printed in May.

He now took up in earnest the labours he had spoken
of to Melancthon. His chief work was the continuation of
his German Bible, namely the translation of the Prophets.
He had long complained of the difficulties presented by
these Books, and he now hoped to have the leisure they
required. Such was his zeal that, when he came to
Jeremiah, he looked forward to finishing all the Prophets
by Whitsuntide, but he soon saw that this was impos-
sible. He published the prophecy of Ezekiel about Gog
and Magog by itself. His wish was to treat of various por-
tions of the Psalms, his own constant book of comfort and
prayer, for the benefit of his congregation ; and he began,
accordingly, with a Commentary on the 118th Psalm. He
expounded to Dietrich whilst at Coburg the first twenty-five
Psalms ; and the transcript of his commentary on these,
which Dietrich left behind him, was afterwards printed.

And to these works he wished to add the fables of iEsop.
His desire was to ' adapt them for youth and common men,
that they should be of some profit to the Germans.' For
among them, he said, were to be found, set forth in simple
words, the most beautiful lessons and warnings, to show
men how to live wisely and peacefully among bad people in
the false and wicked world. Truth which none would endure,
but which no man could do without, was clothed there in
pleasing colours of fiction. For this work, however, Luther
had very little time ; we possess only thirteen fables of his
version. He has rendered them in the simplest popular
language, and expressed the morals in many appropriate
German proverbs.

Luther thought at first that, with these occupations, he
had better have remained at Wittenberg, where, as pro-
fessor, he would have been of more service.

Soon his bodily sufferings — the singing and noise in the
head, and the tendency to faintness, — began again to attack

4o8 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

him ; so that for several days he could neither read nor
write, and for several weeks could not work continuously
for any length of time. He did not know whether it was
the effect of Coburg hospitality, or whether Satan was at
fault. Dietrich thought his illness must be caused by
Satan, since Luther had been particularly careful about
his diet. He told also of a fiery, serpent-like apparition,
which he and Luther had seen one evening in June at the
foot of the Castle Hill. The same night Luther fainted
away, and the next day was very ill ; and this fact confirmed
Dietrich in his belief.

On June 5 Luther received the news of the death of
his aged father, who breathed his last at Mansfeld, on
Sunday, May 29, after long suffering, and in the firm belief
in the gospel preached by his son. Luther was deeply moved
by this intelligence. He had never ceased to treat him with
the same high filial veneration that had formerly prompted
him to dedicate to his parent his treatise on Monastic
Vows, and to invite him to the celebration of his marriage,
made, as we have seen, in accordance with his father's wish.
Since his marriage, indeed, his parents had come to visit
him at Wittenberg ; and the town accounts for 1527 contain
an item of expense for a gallon of wine, given as a vin
d'honneur to old Luther on that occasion. It was then that
Cranach painted the portraits of Luther's parents which
are now to be seen at the Wartburg. Luther had heard
from his brother James in February 1530, that their father
was dangerously ill. He sent a letter to him thereupon, on
the 15th of that month, by the hands of his nephew
Cyriac. He wrote : ' It would be a great joy to me if only
you and my mother could come to us here. My Kate and
all pray for it with tears. I should hope we would do our
best to make you comfortable.' Meanwhile he prayed
earnestly to his Heavenly Father to strengthen and en-
lighten with His Holy Spirit this father whom He had
given him on earth. He would leave it in the hands of his
dear Lord and Saviour whether they should meet one

THE DIET OE AUGSBURG. 409

another again on earth or in heaven ; ' for,' said he, ' we
doubt not but that we shall shortly see each other again
in the presence of Christ, since the departure from this life
is a far smaller matter with God, than if I were to come
hither from you at Mansfeld, or you were to go to Mansfeld
from me at Wittenberg.' After he had opened the letter
with the news of his father's death, he said to Dietrich, ' So
then, my father too is dead,' and then took his Psalter at
once, and went to his room, to give vent to his tears. He
expressed his grief and emotion the same day in a letter to
Melancthon. Everything, he said, that he was or had, he
had received through his Creator from this beloved father.

He kept up his intimacy with his friends at Wittenberg
through his letters to his wife, and by a correspondence
with his friend Jerome Weller, who had come to live in his
house, and who assisted in the education of his son, little
Hans. Weller, formerly a jurist, and already thirty years
old, was then studying theology at Wittenberg. He suffered
from low sjurits, and Luther repeatedly sent him from
Coburg comfort and good advice. The little Hans had
now begun his lessons, and Weller praised him as a pains-
taking pupil. Luther's well-known letter to him was dated
from Coburg, June 19. Written in the midst of the most
serious studies and the most important events and reflec-
tions, it must on no account be omitted in a survey of
Luther's life and character. It runs as follows : —

' Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am
pleased to see that thou learnest thy lessons well, and
prayest diligently. Do thus, my little son, and persevere ;
when I come home I will bring thee a fine " fairing." I
know of a pretty garden where merry children run about
that wear little golden coats, and gather nice apples and
pears, and cherries, and plums under the trees, and sing
and dance, and ride on pretty horses with gold bridles and
silver saddles. I asked the man of the place, whose the
garden was, and whose the children were. He said, "These
are the children who pray and learn, and are good." Then

4io RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

I answered, " Dear sir, I also have a son who is called Hans
Luther. May he not also come into this garden, and eat
these nice pears and apples, and ride a little horse and play
with these children ?" The man said, "If he says his
prayers, and learns, and is good, he too may come into
the garden; and Lippus and Jost may come,1 and when
they all come back, they shall have pipes and drums and
lutes and all sorts of stringed instruments, and they shall
dance and shoot with little crossbows." Then he showed
me a smooth lawn in the garden laid out for dancing,
where hung pipes of pure gold, and drums and beautiful
silver crossbows. But it was still early, and the children
had not dined. So I could not wait for the dance, and said
to the man, " Dear sir, I will go straight home and write
all this to my dear little son Hans, that he may pray
diligently and learn well and be good, and so come into
this garden ; but he has an aunt, Lene,2 whom he must
bring with him." And the man answered, " So it shall be ;
go home and write as you say." Therefore, dear little son
Hans, learn and pray with a good heart, and tell Lippus
and Jost to do the same, and then you will all come to
the beautiful garden together. Almighty God guard you.
Give my love to aunt Lene, and give her a kiss for me,
In the year 1530. — Your loving father, Martin Luther.'

The intercourse between Coburg and Augsburg was, as
may be imagined, well kept up by letters and messengers.

But the crisis of importance arrived when now the
great decision approached, or at least seemed to approach,
for it was most unexpectedly delayed.

Though the Elector had entered Augsburg on May 2,
the Emperor did not arrive there till June 15. He had
stopped on the way at Innspruck, where Duke George and
other princes hostile to the Beformation hastened to present
themselves before him.

1 Melancthon's son Philip, and Jonas's son Jodocus.

2 Hans's great-aunt, Magdalen, mentioned in Part VI. Ch. vii.

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 411

In the meanwhile, Melancthon worked with great in-
dustry and anxious labour at the Apology and Confession
which the Elector of Saxony was to lay before the Diet.
Luther warned him, by his own example, against ruin-
ing his head by immoderate exertion. He wrote to him
on May 12 : 'I command you and all your company,
that they compel you, under pain of excommunication, to
keep your poor body by rule and order, so that you may
not kill yourself and imagine that you do so from obedience
to God. We serve God also by taking holiday and resting;
yes, indeed, in no other way better.' Melancthon had
begun this work at Coburg, while there with Luther, and
based his most important propositions of dogma on the
articles which Luther had drawn up in the previous
autumn at Schwabach. His chief efforts, however, in
accordance with his own inclination and line of thought,
were directed to representing the evangelical doctrines as
agreeing with the traditional doctrines of the universal
Christian Church ; and the Protestant Eeformation as
simply the abolition of certain practical abuses. Never
would Luther have consented to submit to the Diet, and
the Papists and enemies of the gospel there present, a Con-
fession which marked so faintly the gulf of difference between
himself and them. Nevertheless he gladly approved of this
composition of his peace-making friend, which was sent to
him for his opinion by the Elector immediately on its com-
pletion, on May 11. His verdict was: 'I like it well
enough, and see nothing to alter or improve ; indeed, I
could not do so if I would, for I cannot tread so softly and
gently. May Christ, our Lord, help that it may bring
forth much fruit, as we hope and pray it will.' He en-
couraged the Elector, in a letter full of tender words of
comfort, to keep bis heart firm and patient, even if he had
to stay in a tedious place. He pointed out to him God's
great token of His love, in granting so freely to him and to
his people the word of grace, and especially in allowing

412 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

the tender youth, the boys and girls who were his subjects,
to grow up in his country as in a pleasant Paradise of God.

News now reached them of the Emperor, that he blamed
the Elector for the non-execution of the Edict of Worms,
and forbade the clergymen whom the Protestant princes
had brought to Augsburg, to preach there, — a prohibition
against which even Luther admitted they were powerless.
On the other side, Melancthon was particularly troubled
and annoyed that the Landgrave Philip would not admit a
repudiation of Zwingli's doctrine in the Confession, to which
Melancthon attached the utmost importance, not only on
account of the intrinsic objections to that doctrine, but
chiefly in the interests of bringing about a reconciliation
with the Catholics. He begged Luther, on May 22, to try
and influence Philip by letter on this point.

Luther appears to have shown but little inclination to
accede to the request. Melancthon, waiting for his assent,
stopped writing to him. Meanwhile Luther's friends at
Augsburg were looking with anxiety for the arrival and first
appearance of the Emperor. Three whole weeks passed by
before Luther again received a letter from them; it was just
at this time that he was mourning the death of his father.

Luther was exceedingly indignant at this silence. On
receiving another letter, on June 13, from Melancthon, who
said he was impatiently waiting for the letter to the Land-
grave, Luther sent back the messenger without an answer,
and at first was unwilling even to read the letter. He did,
however, now, what was asked of him. He earnestly but
calmly entreated Philip not to espouse their opponents'
doctrine of the Sacrament, or allow himself to be moved
by their ' sweet good ' words. And when now Melancthon,
whom he had seriously frightened by his anger, grew rest-
less and desponding and sleepless with increasing dis-
quietude, through the difficulties at Augsburg, the threats
of his embittered Catholic opponents, and the anxiety as to
submitting the Confession to the Elector, and the conse-

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 413

quences of so doing, and news also reached Luther of the
troubles and distress of his other friends, he repeatedly sent
to them at Augsburg fresh words of encouragement, com-
fort, and counsel, which remain to attest, more than any-
thing else, the nobleness of his mind and character. He
speaks, as from a height of confident, clear, and proud
conviction, to those who are struggling in the whirl and
vortex of earthly schemes and counsels. He has gained
this height, and maintains it in the implicit faith with
which he clings to the invisible God, as if he saw Him;
and, raised above the world, he enjoys filial communion
with his Heavenly Father.

In answering another anxious letter from Melancthon on
the 27th, he reproved his friend for the cares which he allowed
to consume him, and which were the result, he said, not ol
the magnitude of the task before him, but of his own want of
faith. ' Let the matter be ever so great,' he said, ' great also
is He who has begun and who conducts it ; for it is not our
work. . . . " Cast thy burthen upon the Lord ; the Lord is
nigh unto all them that call upon Him." Does He say that
to the wind, or does He throw his words before animals ?
... It is your worldly wisdom that torments you, and not
theology. As if you, with your useless cares, could accom-
plish anything. What more can the devil do than strangle
us ? I conjure you, who in all other matters are so ready
to fight, to fight against yourself as your greatest enemy.'

Two days after, he had already another letter from his
friend to answer. He saw from it, he said, the labour and
trouble, the distress and tears of his friends. He received
also the Confession, now completed, and had to give his
opinion whether it would be possible to make still more
concessions to the Romanists. Upon this point he wrote :
' Day and night I am occupied with it, I turn it over every
way in my mind, I meditate and argue, and examine the
Scriptures on the subject, and more and more convinced do
I become of the truth of our doctrine, and more resolved

414 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

never, if God will, to allow another letter to be torn from
us, be the consequence what it may.' But he objected to
the others speaking of ' following his authority ; ' the cause
was theirs as much as his, and he himself would defend it,
even if he stood alone. He then referred the anxious
Melancthon again to that Faith which had certainly no
place in his rhetoric or philosophy. For faith, he said,
must recognise the Supernatural and the Invisible, and
he who attempts to see and understand it receives only
cares and tears for his reward, as Melancthon did now.
' The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness,'

* and make darkness His secret place ' (1 Kings viii. 12 ;
Psalm xviii. 11). ' He who wishes, let him do differently ;
had Moses wished first to " understand " what the end of
Pharach's army would be, then Israel would still be in Egypt.
May the Lord increase faith in you and all of us ; if we have
that, what in all the world shall the devil do with us ? '

He hastened to send off this letter, and wrote more again
on the same subject the next day, June 30, to Jonas, who
had informed him of Melancthon's afflictions and of the
fierce hatred of their Catholic opponents ; also to Spalatin,
Agricola, and Brenz, and to the young Duke John Frederick.
He sought to calm the latter about the ' poisonous, wicked
talons ' of his nearest blood-relations, especially the Duke
George. He entreated all those theological friends to
bring a wholesome influence to bear on their companion
Melancthon, and for each of them he had particular words
of affection. Melancthon, he wrote, must be dissuaded
from wishing to direct the world and thus crucifying him-
self. The news that ' the princes and nations rage against
the Lord's anointed,' he accepted as a good sign ; for the
Psalmist's words that immediately follow (Ps. ii. 4) were:

* He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall
have them in derision.' He did not understand how men
could be troubled since God still lives : ' He who has created
me will be father to my son and husband to my wife ; He

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 415

will guide the community and be preacher to the congrega-
tion better than I can myself.' His letter to Melancthon
shows in an interesting manner the contrast between him-
self and his friend with regard to cares and temptations.
* In private contests which concern one's own self, I am the
weaker, you the stronger combatant ; but in public ones, it
is just the reverse (if, indeed, any contest can be called
private which is waged between me and Satan) ; for you
take but small account of your life, while you tremble for
the public cause ; whereas I am easy and hopeful about the
latter, knowing as I do for certain that it is just and true,
and the cause of God Himself, which has no consciousness
of sin to make it blanch, as I must about myself. Hence,
in the latter case, I am as a careless spectator.' Moreover
he felt himself just now less visited by his old spiritual
temptations, although the devil still made his body weary.

How Luther used to converse with God as his Father
and Friend, Melancthon learned that day from Dietrich.
The latter heard him pray aloud : ' I know that Thou art
our Father and our God. . . . The danger is Thine as well
as ours ; the whole cause is Thine, we have put our hands
to it because we were obliged to ; do Thou protect it.'
Luther daily devoted at least three hours to prayer. He
liked all his family to do the same. He wrote home to his
wife thus : ' Pray with confidence, for all is well arranged,
and God will aid us.' Two years later he said in a sermon
about the fulfilment of prayer : ' I have tried it, and many
people with me, especially when the devil wanted to devour
us at the Diet at Augsburg, and everything looked black,
and people were so excited that everyone expected things
would go to ruin, as some had defiantly threatened, and
already knives were drawn and guns were loaded ; but God,
in answer to our prayers, so helped us, that those bawlers,
with their clamour and menaces, were put thoroughly to
shame, and a favourable peace and a good year granted
to us.'

416 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

Just about this time, as Jonas announced to Luther,
Duke John Frederick had the arms of the Keformer cut in
stone for a signet ring, and Luther was requested, through
his friend Spengler of Nuremberg, to explain their meaning.
They were peculiarly appropriate to the times. Luther,
as long ago, to our knowledge, as the year 1517, instead of
his father's arms, which were a crossbow with two roses,
had taken as his own one rose, having in its centre a
heart with a cross upon it. This, he now explained,
should be a black cross on a red heart ; for, in order to be
saved, it is necessary to believe with our whole heart in our
crucified Lord, and the cross, though bringing pain and
self-mortification, does not corrupt the nature, but rather

Fig. 41. — Lutheb's Seal. Fig. 42. — Luther's Coat of Arms.

(Taken from letters written in 1517.) (From old prints.)

keeps the heart alive. The heart should be placed in a white
rose, to show that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace, and
because white is the colour of the spirits and angels, and
the joy is not an earthly joy. The rose itself should be set
in an azure field, just as this joy is already the beginning
of heavenly joy and set in heavenly hope, and outside,
round the field, there should be a golden ring, because
heavenly happiness was eternal and precious above all
possessions.

Shortly after this, Luther received the great news that
the summary of belief of German Protestants, or Augsburg
Confession, had been submitted on June 25 to the Emperor
and the Estates, in the German language. The Emperor,
only the day before, had been anxious that it should not be
read aloud, but only received in writing. Publicly, and in

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 417

clear and solemn tones, the Saxon chancellor read the
statement of that evangelical faith, which, only nine years
before, at Worms, Luther had been required to retract.
Luther was highly rejoiced. He saw fulfilled the words of
the Psalmist, ' I will speak of Thy testimonies also before
kings,' and he felt sure that the remainder of the verse,
'and will not be ashamed ' (Ps. cxix. 46), would likewise be
accomplished. He wrote to his Elector, saying it was, for-
sooth, a clever trick of their enemies to seal the lips of the
princes' preachers at Augsburg. The consequence was,
that the Elector and the other nobles ' now preached freely
under the very noses of his Imperial Majesty and the whole
Empire, who were obliged to hear them, and could not offer
any opposition.' How sorry he felt not to have been pre-
sent there himself ! But he rejoiced to have seen the day
when such men stood up in such an assembly, and so
bravely bore witness to the truth of Christ.

Tidings also now arrived of a certain clemency and gene-
rosity even on the part of the Emperor, and of the peaceful
disposition of some of the princes, such as Duke Henry of
Brunswick, who invited Melancthon to dinner, and especially
of Cardinal Albert, the Archbishop and Elector of Mayence.
Luther, unlike Melancthon, was clear and certain on one
point, that an agreement with their opponents on the
questions of belief and religion was absolutely out of the
question. But he now spoke out his opinion most decidedly
as to a ' political agreement,' in spite of their differences of
belief, — an agreement, in other words, that the two Con-
fessions and Churches should peacefully exist together in
the German Empire. This he wished, and almost hoped,
might come to pass. In the Emperor Charles he recog-
nised— he, the loyal-minded German — a good heart and
noble blood, worthy of all honour and esteem. He did not
dare to hope that the Emperor, surrounded as he was by
evil advisers, should actually favour the Evangelical cause,
but he believed at any rate so far in his clemency. In

E E

418 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

that spirit he once more by letter approached the Arch-
bishop. Since there was no hope, he wrote, of their be-
coming one in doctrine, he begged him at least to use his
influence that peace might be granted to the Evangelicals.
For no one could be, or dared be, forced to accept a belief,
and the new doctrine did no harm, but taught peace and
preserved peace. He endeavoured further to appeal to the
Archbishop's conscience as a German. * We Germans do
not give up believing in the Pope and his Italians until they
bring us, not into a bath of sweat, but a bath of blood. If
German princes fell upon one another, that would make
the Pope, the little fruit of Florence, happy ; he would
laugh in his sleeve and say : " There, you German beasts,
you would not have me as Pope, so have that." ... I
cannot hold my hands ; I must strive to help poor Germany,
miserable, forsaken, despised, betrayed, and sold — to whom
indeed I wish no harm, but everything that is good, as my
duty to my dear Fatherland commands me.'

Luther then would not only not hear of surrender, but
looked upon as useless any further negotiations in matters
of belief. He could not understand why his friends were
detained any longer at Augsburg, where they had nothing
to expect but menace and bravado on the part of their
opponents. On July 15 he wrote to them : ' You have
rendered unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and
to God the things that are God's. . . . May Christ confess
us, as you have confessed Him. . . . Thus I absolve you
from this assembly in the Name of the Lord. Now go
home again— go home ! '

But they had still to wait for a Eefutation, which tha
Emperor caused to be drawn up by some strict Catholic
theologians, among whom were Eck, the old and ever violent
and active enemy of Luther, and John Cochlaeus, originally a
champion of Humanism, but who had, since the beginning
of the great contest in the Church, distinguished himself by
petty but bitter polemics against Luther, and now assisted

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 419

Duke George in the place of the deceased Emser. Mean-
while the spiritual and temporal lords caused the Protestants
to fear the worst. For Melancthon, these were his worst
and weakest hours. He even sought to pacify the Papal
legate, by representing that there was no dogma in which
they differed from the Pioman Church. He thought it
possible that even large concessions might be made, so far
at least as regarded the rites and services of the Church.
For these were external things, and the bishops belonged to
the authorities whom God had placed over the externals of
life.

Luther therefore had still to wait with patience. He
continued his encouraging letters, nor did even menaces
disturb him. He remembered that too sharp an edge
gets only full of notches, and that, as he had already been
told by Staupitz, God first shuts the eyes of those He wishes
to plague. To begin a war now would be dangerous even to
their enemies ; the beginning would lead to no progress, the
war to no victory. To Melancthon he spoke, using a coarse
German proverb, about a man who ' died of threatening.'

He drew his richest and most powerful utterances from
his one highest source, the Scriptures. In his own peculiar
manner he expressed himself once to Briick, the chancellor
of the Saxon Elector, his temporal adviser at Augsburg, and
a man who did much to further the Keformation. ' I have
lately,' he wrote, ' on looking out of the window, seen two
wonders : the first, the glorious vault of heaven, with the
stars, supported by no pillar and yet firmly fixed ; the second,
great thick clouds hanging over us, and yet no ground upon
which they rested, or vessel in which they were contained ;
and then, after they had greeted us with a gloomy counte-
nance and passed away, came the luminous rainbow, which
like a frail thin roof nevertheless bore the great weight of
water.' If anyone amidst the present troubles was not
satisfied with the power of faith, Luther would compare him
to a man who should seek for pillars to prevent the heavens

E E 2

42o RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

from falling, and tremble and shake because he could not
find them. He was willing, as he wrote in this letter, to rest
content, even if the Emperor would not grant the political
peace they hoped for ; for God's thoughts are far above men's
thoughts, and God, and not the Emperor, must have the
honour. In a letter to Melancthon he explained calmly and
clearly the duty of distinguishing between the bishops as
temporal princes or authorities, and the bishops as spiritual
shepherds, and how, in this latter capacity, they must never
be allowed the right of burdening Christ's flock with arbi-
trary rites and ordinances.

He now published a series of small tracts, one after the
other, in which, with inflexible determination, he again
asserted the evangelical principles against Catholic errors.
In this spirit he wrote about the Church and Church au-
thority ; against purgatory ; about the keys of the Church,
or how Christ dispenses real forgiveness of sins to His
community ; against the worship of the saints ; about the
right celebration of the Sacrament, and so forth. Eegardless
of the pending questions of dispute, his thoughts reverted
likewise to the needy condition of the schools : he wrote a
special tract, ' On the duty of keeping Children at school.'
His Commentary on the 118th Psalm was now followed by
one upon the 117th. He also worked indefatigably at the
translation of the Prophets. Thus steadily he persevered in
his labours, suffering more or less in his head, always weak
and ' capricious.' At the conclusion of his stay at Coburg
he told a friend that, on account of the ' buzzing and dizzi-
ness ' in his head, he had been obliged, with all his regularity
of habits, to make a holiday of more than half the summer.

On August 3 the Catholic Refutation was at length sub-
mitted to the Diet. It showed indeed, as did the imperial
proclamation convoking the Diet, that it was far from the
Emperor's intention to have the opinions of both sides
fairly heard and judged in a friendly and impartial spirit :
on the contrarv, he demanded that the Protestants should

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 421

declare themselves convinced by it, and therefore con-
quered. The Landgrave Philip replied to this demand
by quitting Augsburg on August 6, without the leave and
contrary to the command of the Emperor, and hastening
home, openly resolved, in case of need, to meet force by
force. But the Emperor, though urged by Rome to take
violent measures, was not prepared, as indeed Luther had
guessed, for such a sudden stroke. He preferred to adopt
a more peaceful and mediating course, and to attempt
once more to settle the differences by a mixed commission
of fourteen, and afterwards by a new and smaller committee,
in which Melancthon alone represented the Evangelical
theologians.

The Protestants had now to consider seriously the
question of a possible submission which Melancthon had
hitherto been anxiously pondering with himself. Luther's
view of the entire standpoint and interests of the Eomish
Church was now confirmed by the fact that her representa-
tives attached less importance to the more profound differ-
ences of doctrine in regard to the inward means of salvation,
than to the restoration of episcopal rights and forms of
worship, such as, in particular, the mass and the Sacrament
in both kinds, which formed the principal difficulties during
the negotiations. On the other hand, no one had taught
more clearly than Luther the freedom which belongs to
Christians in outward forms of constitution and worship,
and which enables them to yield to and serve each other on
these very points. But he had none the less earnestly cau-
tioned against making concessions to ecclesiastical tyrants,
who might make use of them to enslave and mislead souls.
In this respect Melancthon now showed himself entirely
resolved. He longed for a restoration of the Catholic
episcopacy for the Evangelicals, not only for the sake of
peace, but because he despaired of securing otherwise a
genuine regulation of the Church in the face of arbitrary
princes and undisciplined multitudes. In fact the Pro-

422 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

testants on this commission were willing to promise lawful
obedience to the bishops, if only the questions of service
and doctrine were left to a free Council. As regarded the
service of the mass the point at issue was whether the
Protestants could not and ought not to accept it with its
whole act of priestly sacrifice, if only an explanation were
added as to the difference between this sacrifice and the
sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. Other Protestants, on
the contrary, especially the representatives of Nuremberg,
became suspicious and angry at such a way of settling
matters, and especially at the behaviour of Melancthon.
Spengler at Nuremberg wrote accordingly to Luther. The
situation was all the more critical, since the negotiations,
according to the wish of the Emperor, were to proceed
uninterruptedly, and there was no time to obtain an opinion
from Coburg.

Luther now, to whom the Elector submitted the Articles
which were to bring about an agreement, sent a very calm,
clear answer, entering into all the particulars. He gave a
purely practical judgment, though resting upon the highest
principles. Thus, with regard to the mass, he says that
the Catholic liturgy contained the inadmissible idea that
we must pray to God to accept the Body of His Son as
a sacrifice ; if this were to be explained in a gloss, either
the words of the liturgy would have to be falsified by the
gloss, or the gloss by the words of the liturgy. It would
be wrong and foolish to run into danger unnecessarily
about so troublesome a word. He warned Melancthon
especially against the power of the bishops. He knew well
that obedience to them meant a restriction of the freedom
of the gospel ; but the bishops would not consider them-
selves equally bound, and would declare it a breach of faith
if everything that they wished were not observed. He
then quietly expressed his conviction that the whole
attempt at negotiation was a vain delusion. It was
wished to make the Pope and Luther agree together, but

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 423

the Pope was unwilling and Luther begged to be excused.
Firmly and calmly he relied on the consciousness, whatever
happened, of his own independence and strength. Thus
he wrote to Spengler : ' I have commended the matter to
God, and I think also I have kept it so well in hand
that nobody can find me defenceless on any point so long
as Christ and I are united.' To Spalatin he wrote : ' Free
is Luther, and free also is the Macedonian (Philip of Hesse).
. . . Only be brave and behave like men ! ' We have
taken this from letters rich in similar thoughts, addressed
by Luther on August 26 to the Elector John, Melancthon,
Spalatin, and Jonas, and from other letters written two
days after to the three last-named friends and to Spengler.
He likewise wrote for Brenz on the 26th a preface to his
Exposition of the Prophet Amos. This preface shows us
how Luther himself judged his own words which he sent
forth with such power. His own speech, he says, is a wild
wood, compared with the clear, pure flow of Brenz's lan-
guage ; it was, to compare small things with great, as if his
was the strong spirit of Elijah, the wind tearing up the
rocks, and the earthquake and fire, whereas Brenz's was the
* still, small voice.' Yet God needs also rough wedges for
rough logs, and together with the fruitful rain He sends
the storm of thunder and lightning to purify the air.

If, however, Protestantism was then threatened by
danger from mistaken concessions, the danger was soon
averted by the demands of its opponents, who went too far
even for a Melancthon. The proceedings of the smaller
committee had likewise to be closed without any result.
On September 8 Luther was able at last to tell his wife
that he hoped soon to return home ; to his little Hans he
promised to bring a ' beautiful large book of sugar,' which
his cousin Cyriac, who had travelled with Luther to Augsburg
and Nuremberg, had brought for him out of that ' beautiful
garden.' On the 14th he received a visit from Duke John
Frederick and Count Albert of Mansfeld upon their return

424 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

from the Diet. The former brought him the signet ring,
which, however, was too large even for his thumb ; he re-
marked that lead, not gold, was fitting for him. He only
wished he could see his other friends also escaped from
Augsburg; and although the Duke was ready to take him
away with him, he preferred to remain behind at Coburg,
in order, as he wrote to Melancthon, to receive them there
and wipe off their perspiration after their hot bath.

At Augsburg negotiations were re-opened with Melanc-
thon and Briick ; the Nuremberg deputy even thought it
necessary to complain in the strongest terms of an ' under-
hand unchristian stratagem ' against which Melancthon
would no longer listen to a word of remonstrance ; and
Luther, who heard of these complaints through Spengler
and Link, expressed indeed his full confidence to his Saxon
theologians, and. was particularly anxious not to wound
Melancthon, but earnestly and pressingly begged him and
Jonas, on the 20th of the month, to inform him about the
matter, to be on their guard against the crafty attacks of
their enemies, and to renounce finally all idea of a com-
promise. While, however, these letters were on their way
past Nuremberg through Spengler's hands, it was already
known there that the new attempt, especially that against
the constancy of Jonas and Spalatin, had shipwrecked,
and Spengler consequently did not forward them to their
address. The Evangelical States adhered to their Protest
of 1529 and to the Imperial Lecess of 1526.

The Emperor made known his displeasure at this result,
but found that even those princes who were most zealous
against the innovations, were not equally zealous to plunge
into at least a doubtful war f^r the extirpation of heresy, and
the aggrandisement, moreover, of the Emperor's authority
and power, and accordingly he resolved to put off the de-
cision. On the 22nd he announced a Recess, which gave
the Protestants, whose Confession, it was stated, had been
publicly heard and refuted, time till the 15th of the foL

THE DIET OF AUGSBURG. 425

lowing April for consideration whether, in the matter oi
the articles in dispute, they would return to unity with the
Church, Pope, and Empire. The Emperor, meanwhile,
engaged to bring about the meeting of a Council within a
year, for the removal of real ecclesiastical grievances, but
reserved until that period the consideration of what further
steps should eventually be taken. The Evangelicals pro-
tested that their Confession had never been refuted, and pro-
ceeded to lay before the Emperor an apology for it, drawn up
by Melancthon. They accepted the time offered for considera-
tion. So far then the promise was given of the political
peace which Luther had wished and hoped for. Referring
to the other dangers and menaces before them, he said to
Spengler : ' We are cleared and have done enough ; the
blood be upon their own head.'

Yet another attempt at union came to Luther at Coburg
from quite a different quarter. Strasburg, and three other
South German towns, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau,
differing as they did from the Lutherans in the Sacramental
controversy, had laid before the Diet a Confession of their
own— the so-called Tetrapolitana. They too, like Zwingli,
refused to recognise any partaking of the Body of Christ
by the mouth and body of the receiver, but at the same
time, unlike him, they based their whole view of the
Eucharist on the assumption of a real Divine gift and a
spiritual enjoyment of the ' real Body ' of Christ. On the
strength of this view, Butzer, the theological representative
of Strasburg, sought to make further overtures to the
Wittenbergers. He was not deterred by Melancthon's mis-
trustful opposition or by Luther's leaving a letter of his un-
answered. He now appeared in person at the Castle of
Coburg, and on September 25 had a confidential and
friendly interview with Luther. The latter still refused
to content himself with a mere ' spiritual partaking,' and,
though demanding above all things entire frankness, did not
himself conceal a constant suspicion. However, he himself

426 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

began to hope for good results, and assured Butzer h«
would willingly sacrifice his life three times over, if thereby
this division might be put an end to. This fortunate be-
ginning encouraged Butzer to further attempts, which he
made afterwards in private.

The day after the reading of the Eecess, the Elector
John was able at length to leave the Diet and set forward on
his journey home. The Emperor took leave of him with
these words : ' Uncle, Uncle, I did not look for this from
you.' The Elector, with tears in his eyes, went away in
silence. After staying a short time at Nuremberg, he paid
a visit, with his theologians, to Luther. They left Coburg
together on October 5, and travelled by Altenburg, where
Luther preached on Sunday, the 9th, to the royal residence
at Torgau. After Luther had also preached here on the
following Sunday, he returned to his home.

427

CHAPTEE VI.

FROM THE DIET OF AUGSBURG TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF
NUREMBERG, 1532. DEATH OF THE ELECTOR JOHN.

No sooner had Luther resumed his official duties at Witten-
berg, than he again undertook extra and very arduous work.
Bugenhagen went in October to Liibeck, as he had pre-
viously gone to Brunswick and Hamburg. The most im-
portant advance made by the Keformation during those
years when its champions had to fight so stoutly at the
Diets for their rights, was in the North German cities.
Luther, soon after his arrival at Coburg, had received news
that Liibeck and Luneburg had accepted the Reformation.
The citizens of Liibeck refused to allow any but Evangelical
preachers, and abolished all non- evangelical usages, though
an opposition party appealed to the Emperor, and actually
induced him to issue a mandate prohibiting the innovations.
To organise the new Church, the Liibeckers would have
preferred the assistance of Luther himself; but failing
him, their delegates begged the Elector John, when at
Augsburg, to send them at least Bugenhagen. Under these
circumstances Luther agreed that Bugenhagen should be
allowed to go, although the Wittenberg congregation and
university could hardly spare him. His friend was wanted
at Wittenberg, said Luther, all the more because he him-
self could not be of any use much longer ; for what with
his failing years and his bad health, so weary was he of
life that this accursed world would soon have seen and
suffered the last of him.

Nevertheless, he again undertook at once, so far as his

428 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

health permitted, the official duties of the town pastor, who
this time was absent from Wittenberg for a year and a half,
until April 1532 ; Luther, accordingly, not only preached
the weekly sermons on Wednesdays and Saturdays, on the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, but attended con-
tinuously to the care of souls and the ordinary business of
his office. He would reproach himself with the fact that
under his administration the poor-box of the church was
neglected, and that he was often too tired and too lazy to
do anything. The pains in his head, the giddiness, and the
affections of his heart now recurred, and grew worse in
March and June 1531, while the next year they developed
symptoms of the utmost gravity and alarm. ■

All this time he worked with indefatigable industry to
finish his translation of the Prophets ; in the autumn of
1531 he told Spalatin that he devoted two hours daily to
the task of correction. He brought out a new and revised
edition of the Psalms, and published some of them with a
practical exposition.

In addition to these literary labours, which ever re-
mained his first delight, Luther's chief task was to advise
his Elector upon the salient questions, transactions, and
dangers of Church politics, which, with the Eecess of the
Diet and the period thereby allotted for their consideration,
had become matters of real urgency. And, in fact, it was
to his valuable and conscientious advice that the Protestants
in general throughout the Empire looked for guidance.

On November 19 the Eecess of the Diet, passed in de-
fiance of the Protestants, was published at Augsburg. They
accepted the time allowed them for consideration, but the
Emperor and the Empire insisted on maintaining the
old ordinances of the Church, and the Protestants were
now required to surrender the ecclesiastical and monastic
property in their hands. The latter observed, moreover,
that the Eecess contained no actual promise of peace on
the part of the Emperor, but that the States only were

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE Of NUREMBERG. 429

commanded to keep peace. In fact, the Emperor had
already promised the Pope on October 4 to employ all his
force to suppress the Protestants. He immediately sub-
jected the Supreme Court of the Empire— the so-called
Imperial Chamber — to a visitation, and instructed it to
enforce strictly the contents of the Recess in ecclesiastical
and religious matters. Thus the campaign against the
Protestants was to begin with the institution of processes
at law, with reference particularly to the question of Church
property. Furthermore, to secure the authority and continue
the policy of the Emperor during his absence, his brother
Ferdinand was to be elected King of the Romans. John
of Saxony, the only Protestant among the Electors, opposed
the election. He appealed to the fact that the nomination
was a direct violation of a decision of imperial law, the
Golden Bull, which declared that the proposal for such an
election, during the lifetime of the Emperor, must first be
unanimously resolved on by the Electors. The Emperor
had a Papal brief in his hands which empowered him to ex-
clude John, as a heretic, from electing, but he did not find
it prudent to make use of it. The election actually took
place on January 5, 1531.

The Protestants now sought for protection in a firm,
well-organised union among themselves. They assembled
for this purpose at Schmalkald at Christmas 1530.

The more imminent, however, the danger to be en-
countered, the more necessary it became to determine the
question whether it was lawful to resist the Emperor. The
jurists who advised in favour of resistance, adduced certain
arguments, without, however, stating any very clear or
forcible reasons of law. They quoted principles of civil
law, to show that a judge, whose sentence is appealed against
to a higher court, has no right to execute it by force, and
that if he does so, resistance may lawfully be offered him ;
and they proceeded to apply this analogy to the appeal of
the Protestants to a future Council, and the action taken

43Q RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

against them, while their appeal was still pending, by the
Emperor. They were nearer the mark when they argued
that, according to the constitution of the Empire and the
imperial laws themselves, the sovereignty of the Emperor
was in no sense unlimited or incapable of being resisted ;
but then the difficulty here was, that the right of individual
States to oppose decrees, passed at a regular Diet by the
Emperor and the majority of the members present, was
not yet proved. There was a general want of clearness and
precision connected with the theories then being developed
of the relations of the different States and the interpretation
of their rights. Upon this matter, then, Luther was called
on again, with the other "Wittenberg theologians, to give
an opinion. The jurists also, especially the chancellor
Briick, were associated with them in then* deliberations.

On the question about Ferdinand's election as King of
Eome, Luther strongly advised his Elector to give way.
The danger which, in the event of his refusal, menaced
both himself and the whole of Germany appeared to Luther
far too serious to justify it. The occasion would be used to
deprive him of the Electorship, and perhaps give it to Duke
George ; and Germany would be rent asunder and plunged
into war and misery. This, said Luther, was hiis advice ;
adding, however, that as he held such a humble position
in the world, he did not understand to give much advice
in such important matters, nay, he was ' too much like a
child in these worldly affairs.'

But a change had now come in his views about the
right of resistance ; a change which, though in reality but
an advance upon his earlier principles, led to an opposite
result. He taught that civil authorities and their ordinances
were distinctly of God, and by these ordinances he under-
stood, according to the Apostle's words, the different laws
of different States, so far as they had anywhere acquired
stability. With regard to Germany, as we have seen, his
good monarchical principles did not as yet prevent his hold-

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 431

ing the opinion that the collective body of the princes of the
Empire could dethrone an unworthy Emperor. The deter-
mining question with him now was what the law of the
Empire or the edict of the Emperor himself would de-
cide, in the event of resistance being offered by individual
States of the Empire, which found themselves and their
subjects injured in their rights and impeded in the fulfil-
ment of their duties. The answer to this, however, he
conceived to be a matter no longer for theologians, but for
men versed in the law, and for politicians. Theologians
could only tell him that though, indeed, a Christian, simply
as a Christian, must willingly suffer wrong, yet the secular
authorities, and therefore every German prince having
authority, were bound to uphold their office given them by
God, and protect their subjects from wrong. As to what
were the established ordinances and laws of each individual
State, that was a matter for jurists to decide, and for the
princes to seek their counsel. Accordingly, the Wittenberg
theologians declared as their opinion that if those versed
in the law could prove that in certain cases, according to
the law of the Empire, the supreme authority could be
resisted, and that the present case was one of that descrip-
tion, not even theologians could controvert them from
Scripture. In condemning previously all resistance, they
said, they ' had not known that the sovereign power itself
was subject to the law.' The net result was that the allies
really considered themselves justified in offering resistance
to the Emperor, and prepared to do so. The responsibility,
as Luther warned them, must rest with the princes and
politicians, inasmuch as it was their duty to see that they
had right on their side. ' That is a question,' he said,
* which we neither know nor assert : I leave them to act.'

Luther gave open vent to his indignation at the Eecess
of the Diet and the violent attacks of the Catholics in two
publications, early in 1531, one entitled * Gloss on the sup-
posed Edict of the Emperor/ and the other, ' Warning to

432 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

his beloved Germans.' In the former he reviewed the
contents of the Edict and the calumnies it heaped upon the
Evangelical doctrines, not intending, as he said, to attack his
Imperial Majesty, but only the traitors and villains, be they
princes or bishops, who sought to work their own wicked will,
and chief of all the arch-rogue, the so-called Vicegerent of
God, and his legates. The other treatise contemplates the
' very worst evil ' of all that then threatened them, namely,
a war resulting from the coercive measures of the Emperor
and the resistance of the Protestants. As a spiritual pastor
and preacher he wished to counsel not war, but peace, as all
the world must testify he had always been the most diligent
in doing. But he now openly declared that if, which God
forbid, it came to war, he would not have those who defended
themselves against the bloodthirsty Papists censured as
rebellious, but would have it called an act of necessary de-
fence, and justify it by referring to the law and the lawyers.

These publications occasioned fresh dealings with Duke
George, who again complained to the Elector about them,
and also about certain letters falsely ascribed to Luther, and
then published a reply, under an assumed name, to his first
pamphlet. Luther answered this ' libel ' with a tract en-
titled ' Against the Assassin at Dresden,' not intended, as
many have supposed, to impute murderous designs to the
Duke, but referring to the calumnies and anonymous attacks
in his book. The tone employed by Luther in this tract
reminds us of his saying that ' a rough wedge is wanted
for a rough log.' It brought down upon him a fresh ad-
monition from his prince, in reply to which he simply begged
that George might for the future leave him in peace.

The imminence of the common danger favoured the at-
tempts of the South German States to effect an agreement
with the German Protestants, and the efforts of Butzer in
that direction. Luther himself acknowledged in a letter to
Butzer, how very necessary a union with them was, and
what a scandal was caused to the gospel by their rupture

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 433

hitherto, nay, that if only they were united, the Papacy, the
Turks, the whole world, and the very gates of hell would
never be able to work the gospel harm. Nevertheless, his
conscience forbade him to overlook the existing differences
of doctrine ; nor could he imagine why his former opponents,
if they now acknowledged the Eeal Presence of the Body at
the Sacrament, could not plainly admit that presence for
the mouth and body of all partakers, whether worthy or
unworthy. He deemed it sufficient at present, that each
party should desist from writing against the other, and wait
until 'perhaps God, if they ceased from strife, should
vouchsafe further grace.' The new explanations, however,
were enough to make the Schmalkaldic allies abandon their
scruples to admitting the South Germans, and they were
accordingly received into the league.

Thus then, at the end of March 1531, a mutual de-
fensive alliance for six years of the members of the Schmal-
kaldic League was concluded between the Elector John, the
Landgrave Philip, three Dukes of Brunswick Liineburg,
Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, Counts Albert and Gebhard of
Mansfeld, the North German towns of Magdeburg, Bremen,
and Liibeck, and the South German towns of Strasburg,
Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, and also Ulm, Pieut-
lingen, Bibrach, and Isny. Even Luther no longer raised
any objections.

By this alliance the Protestants presented a firm and
powerful front among the constituent portions of the
German Empire. Their adversaries were not so agreed
in their interests. Between the Dukes of Bavaria, and
between the Emperor and Ferdinand, political jealousy
prevailed to an extent sufficient to induce the former to
combine with the heretics agamst the newly-elected King.
Outside Germany, Denmark reached the hand of fellowship
to the Schmalkaldic League; for the exiled King of Denmark,
Christian II., who had previously turned to the Saxon
Elector and been friendly to Luther, now sought, after

F p

434 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

returning in all humility to the orthodox Church, to regain
his lost sovereignty with the help of his brother-in-law, the
Emperor. The King of France also was equally ready to
make common cause with the Protestant German princes
against the growing power of Charles V.

As for Luther, we find no notice on his part of the
schemes and negotiations connected with these political
events, much less any active participation in them. There
was just then a rupture pending between Henry VIII. of
England and the Emperor, and the former was preparing to
secede from the Church of Rome. Henry was anxious for a
divorce from his wife Katharine of Arragon, an aunt of the
Emperor, on the ground of her previous marriage with his
deceased brother, which, as he alleged, made his own mar-
riage with her illegal ; and since the Pope, in spite of long
negotiations, refused, out of regard for the Emperor, to ac-
cede to his request, Henry had an opinion prepared by a
number of European universities and men of learning, on
the legality and validity of his marriage, which in fact for
the most part declared against it. A secret commissioner
of the former ' Protector of the Faith ' was then sent to the
Wittenbergers, and to Luther, whom he had so grossly
insulted. Luther, however, pronounced (Sept. 5, 1531)
against the divorce, on the ground that the marriage, though
not contrary to the law of God as set forth in Scripture,
was prohibited by the human law of the Church. The poli-
tical side of the question he disregarded altogether. He
expressed himself to Spalatin, in a certain tone of sadness,
about the Pope's evil disposition towards the Emperor, the
intrigues he seemed to be promoting against him in France,
and the animosity of Henry VIII. towards him on account
of his decision on the marriage ; and added, ' Such is the
way of this wicked world ; may God take our Emperor
under His protection ! '

With Charles V. and Ferdinand the question of peace or
war was, of necessity, largely governed by the menacing

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 435

attitude of the Turks ; in fact it determined their policy in
the matter. Luther kept this danger steadily in view ; after
the publication of the Recess he promised the wrath of God
upon those madmen who would enter upon a war while they
had the Turks before their very eyes. Ferdinand in vain
sought to conclude a treaty of peace with the Sultan, who
demanded him to surrender all the fortresses he still
possessed in a part of Hungary, and reserved the right of
making further conquests. He was even induced, in March
1531, to advise his brother to effect a peaceful arrange-
ment with the Protestants, in order to ensure their assistance
In arms. Attempts at reconciliation were accordingly
made through the intervention of the Electors of the Palati-
nate and Mayence. The term allowed by the Diet (April 15)
passed by unnoticed. The Emperor also directed the ' sus-
pension of the proceedings, which he had been authorised
by the Recess of Augsburg to set on foot in religious matters,
till the approaching Diet.'

The negotiations were languidly protracted through the
summer, without effecting any definite result. An opinion,
drawn up jointly by Luther, Melancthon, and Bugenhagen,
advised against an absolute rejection of the proposed
restoration of episcopal power ; the only thing necessary
to insist upon being that the clergy and congregations
should be allowed by the bishops the pure preaching of the
gospel which had hitherto been refused them.

About this time Luther had the grief of losing his
mother. She died on June 30, after receiving from her son
a consolatory letter in her last illness. Of his own physical
suffering in this month we have already spoken. On the
26th, he wrote to Link that Satan had sent all his mes-
sengers to buffet him (2 Cor. xii. 7), so that he could only
rarely write or do anything : the devil would probably soon
kill him outright. And yet not his will would be done, but
the will of Him \<rho had already overthrown Satan and
all his kingdom.

Y 1 2

436 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

Soon afterwards, the desire of the Catholics for coercive
measures was stimulated afresh by the news of a defeat
which the Keformed cities in Switzerland had sustained at
the hands of the five Catholic Cantons, notwithstanding
that the balance of force inclined there far more than in
Germany to the side of the Evangelicals. The struggle
which Luther was perpetually endeavouring to avert from
Germany, culminated in Switzerland in a bloody outbreak,
mainly at Zwingli's instigation. Zwingli himself fell on
October 11 in the battle of Cappel, a victim of the patriotic
schemes by wThich he had laboured to achieve for his
country a grand reform of politics, morality, and the
Church, but for which he had failed to enlist any intelli-
gent or unanimous co-operation on the part of his compa-
nions in faith. Ferdinand triumphed over this first great
victory for the Catholic cause. He was now ready to
renounce humbly his claim upon Hungary, so that, by
making peace w7ith the Sultan, he might leave his own and
the Emperor's hands free in Germany. Luther saw in the
fate of Zwingli another judgment of God against the spirit
of Munzer, and in the whole course of the war a solemn
warning for the members of the Schmalkaldic League not
to boast of any human alliance, and to do their utmost to
preserve peace.

But the events in Switzerland gave no handle against
those who had not joined the Zwinglians, nor were even
the latter weakened thereby in power and organisation.
The South Germans had now to cling all the more firmly
to their alliance with the Lutheran princes and cities ; the
Zwinglian movement suffered shortly afterwards (Dec. 1)
a severe loss in the death of Oecolampadius. Finally
the Sultan was not satisfied with Ferdinand's repeated
offers, but prepared for a new campaign against Austria
in the spring of 1532, and towards the end of April he set
out for it.

This checked the feverous desire of Germans for war

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 43/

against their fellow-countrymen, and brought to a practical
result the negotiations for a treaty which had been con-
ducted early in 1532 at Schweinfurt, and later on at
Nuremberg. They amounted to this : that all idea of an
agreement on the religious and ecclesiastical questions in
dispute was abandoned until the hoped-for Council should
take place, and that, as had long been Luther's opinion,
they should rest content with a political peace or modus
vivendi, which should recognise both parties in the position
they then occupied. The main dispute was on the further
question, how far this recognition should extend ; — whether
only to the Schmalkaldic allies, the immediate parties to
the present agreement, or to such other States of the
Empire as might go over to the new doctrine from the old
Church — which still remained the established Church of
the Emperor and the Empire in general— and, perhaps
further, to Protestant subjects of Catholic princes of the
Empire. There was also still the question as to the validity
of Ferdinand's election as King of Rome. Luther was
again and again asked for his opinion on this subject.

He was just then suffering from an unusually severe
attack, which incessantly reminded him of his approaching
end. In addition, he was deeply concerned about the
health of his beloved Elector. Early in the morning of
January 22 he was seized again, as his friend Dietrich, who
lived with him, informs us, with another violent attack in
his head and heart. His friends who had come to him
began to speak of the effect his death would have on the
Papists, when he exclaimed, ' But I shall not die yet, I am
certain. God will never strengthen the Papal abominations
by letting me die now that Zwingli and Oecolampadius are
just gone. Satan would no doubt like to have it so : he
dogs my heels every moment ; but not his will will be done,
but the Lord's.' The physician thought that apoplexy was
imminent, and that if so, Luther could hardly recover.
The attack however seems to have quickly passed away, but

438 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

Luther's head remained racked with pain. A few weeks
later, towards the end of February, he had to visit the
Elector at Torgau, who was lying there in great suffering,
and had been compelled to have the great toe of his left
foot amputated. Luther writes thence about himself to
Dietrich, saying that he was thinking about the preface to
his translation of the Prophets, but suffered so severely
from giddiness and the torments of Satan, that he well-nigh
despaired of living and returning to Wittenberg. ' My
head,' he says, ' will do no more : so remember that, if I
die, your talents and eloquence will be wanted for the
preface.' For a whole month, as he remarked at the
beginning of April, he was prevented from reading, writing,
and lecturing. He informed Spalatin, in a letter of May
20, which Bugenhagen wrote for him, that at present, God
willing, he must take a holiday. And on June 13 he told
Amsdorf that his head was gradually recovering through
the intercessions of his friends, but that he despaired of
regaining his natural powers.

Notwithstanding this condition and frame of mind,
Luther continued to send cordial, calm, and encouraging
words of peace, concerning the negotiations then pending,
both to the Elector John and his son John Frederick.

Concerning Ferdinand's election Luther declared to
these two princes on February 12, and again afterwards,
that it must not be allowed to embarrass or prevent a treaty
of peace. If it violated a trifling article of the Golden
Bull, that was no sin against the Holy Ghost, and God
could show the Protestants, for a mote like this in the eyes
of their enemies, whole beams in their own. It must
needs be an intolerable burden to the Elector's conscience
if war were to arise in consequence, — a war which might
' well end in rending the Empire asunder and letting in the
Turks, to the ruin of the Gospel and everything else.'

An opinion, drawn up on May 16 by Luther and
Bugenhagen, was equally decided in counselling submission

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 439

on the question as to the extension of the truce, if
peace itself depended upon it. For if the Emperor, he
said, was now pleased to grant security to the now existing
Protestant States, he did so as a favour and a personal
privilege. They could not coerce him into showing the
same favour to others. Others must make the venture by
the grace of God, and hope to gain security in like manner.
Everyone must accept the gospel at his own peril.

Luther began already to hear the reproach that to
adopt such a course would be to renounce brotherly love,
for Christians should seek the salvation and welfare of
others besides themselves. He was reproached again with
disowning by his conduct the Protestant ideal of religious
freedom and the equal rights of Confessions. Very dif-
ferently will he be judged by those who realise the legal
and constitutional relations then existing in Germany, and
the ecclesiastico-political views shared in common by Pro-
testants and Catholics, and who then ask what was to be
gained by a course contrary to that which he advised in
the way of peace and positive law. That the sovereigns of
Catholic States should secure toleration to the Evangelical
worship in their own territories was opposed to those general
principles by virtue of which the Protestant rulers took pro-
ceedings against their Catholic subjects. According to those
principles, nothing was left for subjects who resisted the
established religion of the country but to claim free and un-
molested departure. Luther observed with justice, ' What
thou wilt not have done to thee, do not thou to others.' With
regard to the further question as to the princes who should
hereafter join the Protestants, it certainly sounds naive to
hear Luther speak of a present mere act of favour on the
part of the Emperor. But he was strictly right in his idea,
that a concession, involving the separation of some of the
States of the Empire from the one Church system hitherto
established indivisibly throughout the Empire, and their
organisation of a separate Church, had no foundation

440 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

whatever in imperial law as existing before and up to the
Reformation, and could in so far be regarded simply as a
free concession of the Emperor and Empire to individual
members of the general body ; who, therefore, had no
right to compel the extension of this concession to others,
and thereby hazard the peace of the Empire. Something
had already been gained by the fact that at least no limi-
tation was expressed. A door was thus left open for exten-
sion at a future time ; and for those who wished to profit
by this fact, the danger, if only peace could be assured,
was at any rate diminished. If we may see any merit in
the fact that the German nation at that time was spared a
bloody war, unbounded in its destructive results, and that
a peaceful solution was secured for a number of years, that
merit is due in the first place to the great Reformer. He
acted throughout like a true patriot and child of his Eather-
land, no less than like a true Christian teacher and adviser
of conscience.

The negotiations above described ■ involved the further
question about a Council, pending which a peaceful agree-
ment was now effected. In the article providing for the
convocation of a ' free Christian Council,' the Protestants
demanded the addition of the words, ' in which questions
should be determined according to the pure Word of God.'
On this point, however, Luther was unwilling to prolong the
dispute. He remarked with practical wisdom that the
addition would be of no service ; their opponents would in
any case wish to have the credit of having spoken accord-
ing to the pure Word of God.

In June bad news came again from Nuremberg, tending
to the belief that the Papists had thwarted the work of
peace. Luther again exclaimed, as he had done after the
Diet of Augsburg, ' Well, well ! your blood be upon your
own heads ; we have done enough.'

Towards the end of the month, when the Elector again
invited his opinion, he repeated, with even more urgency

TO THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG. 441

than before, his warnings to those Protestants also who
were ' far too clever and confident, and who, as their
language seemed to show, wished to have a peace not open
to dispute.' He begged the Elector, in all humility, to
1 write in earnest a good, stern letter to our brethren,' that
they might see how much the Emperor had graciously
conceded to them which could be accepted with a good
conscience, and not refuse such a gracious peace for the
sake of some paltry, far-fetched point of detail. God would
surely heal and provide for such trifling defects.

On July 23 the peace was actually concluded at
Nuremberg, and signed by the Emperor on August 2.
Both parties were mutually to practise Christian toleration
until the Council was held ; one of these parties being ex-
pressly designated as the Schmalkaldic allies. The value
of this treaty for the maintenance of Protestantism in
Germany was shown by the indignation displayed by the
Papal legates from the first at the Emperor's concessions.

The Elector John was permitted to survive the conclu-
sion of the peace, which he had been foremost among the
princes in promoting. Shortly after, on August 15, he
was seized with apoplexy when out hunting, and on the fol-
lowing day he breathed his last. Luther and Melancthon,
who were summoned to him at Schweinitz, found him un-
conscious. Luther said his beloved prince, on awakening,
would be conscious of everlasting life ; just as when he
came from hunting on the Lochau heath, he would not know
what had happened to him ; as said the prophet (Isaiah
lvii. 1, 2), ' The righteous is taken away from the evil to
come. He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest in their
beds.' Luther preached at his funeral at Wittenberg, as he
had done seven years before at his brother's, and Spalatin
tells us how he wept like a child.

John had, throughout his reign, laboured conscientiously
to follow the Word of God, as taught by Luther, and to
encounter all dangers and difficulties by the strength oi

442 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH.

faith. He has rightly earned the surname of ■ the Stead-
fast.' Luther especially praises his conduct at the Diet of
Augsburg in this respect ; he frequently said to his coun-
cillors on that occasion, ' Tell my men of learning that they
are to do what is right, to the praise and glory of God, with-
out regard to me, or to my country and people.' Luther dis-
tinguished piety and benevolence as the two most prominent
features of his character, as wisdom and understanding
had been those of the Elector Frederick's. ' Had the two
princes,' he said, * been one, that man would have been a
marvel.'

PAET VI.

FROM THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF NUREMBERG
TO THE DEATH OF LUTHER.

CHAPTER I.

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 1532-34.

Political peace had been the blessing which Luther hoped
to see obtained for his countrymen and his Church, during
the anxious time of the Augsburg Diet. Such a peace had
now been gained by the development of political relations,
in which he himself had only so far co-operated as to ex-
hort the Protestant States to practise all the moderation in
their power. He saw in this result the dispensation of a
higher power, for which he could never be thankful enough
to God. For the remainder of his life he was permitted to
enjoy this peace, and, so far as he could, to assist in its pre-
servation. In the enjoyment of it he continued to build on
the foundations prepared for him under the protecting
patronage of Frederick the Wise, and on which the first
stone of the new Church edifice had been laid under the
Elector John.

A longer time was given him for this work than he had
anticipated. We have had occasion frequently to refer not
only to his thoughts of approaching death, but also to the
severe attacks of illness which actually threatened to prove
fatal. Although these attacks did not recur with such dan-
gerous severity in the later years of his life, still a sense of
weakness and premature old age invariably remained behind

444 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS AND DEATH.

them. Exhaustion, caused by his work and the struggles he
had undergone, debarred him from exertion for which he had
all the will. He constantly complained of weakness in the
head and giddiness, which totally unfitted him for work,
especially in the morning. He would break out to his
friends with the exclamation, ' I waste my life so uselessly,
that I have come to bear a marvellous hatred towards my-
self. I don't know how it is that the time passes away so
quickly, and I do so little. I shall not die of years, but of
sheer want of strength.' In begging one of his friends at a
distance to visit him once more, he reminds him that, in his
present state of health, he must not forget that it might be
for the last time. No wonder then if his natural excitability
was often morbidly increased. He always looked forward
with joy to his leaving this ' wicked world,' but as long as
he had to work in it, he exerted all his powers no less for
his own immediate task than for the general affairs of the
Church, which incessantly demanded his attention.

The mutual trust and friendship subsisting between the
Beformer and his sovereign continued unbroken with John's
son and successor, John Frederick. This Elector, born in
1503, had, while yet a youth, embraced Luther's teaching
with enthusiasm, and leaned upon him as his spiritual
father. Luther, on his side, treated him with a confidential,
easy intimacy, but never forgot to address him as ' Most
illustrious Prince ' and ' Most gracious Lord.' When the
young man assumed the Electorship, and appeared at
Wittenberg a few days after his father's death, he at once
invited Luther to preach at the castle and to dine at his
table. Luther expressed indeed to friends his fear that the
many councillors who surrounded the young Elector might
try to exert evil influences upon him, and that he might
have to pay dearly for his experience. It might be, he
said, that so many dogs barking round him would make
him deaf to anyone else. For instance, they might take a
grudge against the clergy and cry out, if admonished by

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 445

them, what can a mere clerk know about it ? But his
relations with his prince remained undisturbed. He saw
with joy how the latter was beginning to gather up the
reins which his gentle-minded father had allowed to grow
too slack, and he hoped that if God would grant a few
years of peace, John Frederick would take in hand real and
important reforms in his government, and not merely com-
mand them but see them executed.

The Elector's wife, Sybil, a princess of Juliers, shared
her husband's friendship for Luther. * The Elector had
married her in 1526, after taking Luther into his confidence,
and being warned by him against needlessly delaying the
blessing which God had willed to grant him. On what a
footing of cordial intimacy she stood with both Luther and
his wife, is shown by a letter she wrote to him in January
1529, while her husband was away on a journey. She says
that she will not conceal from him, as her ' good friend and
lover of the comforting Word of God,' that she finds the
time very tedious now that her most beloved lord and
husband is away, and that therefore she would gladly have
a word of comfort from Luther, and be a little cheerful
with him ; but that this is impossible at Weimar, so far off
as it is, and so she commends all, and Luther and his dear
wife, to the loving God, and will put her trust in Him.
She begs him in conclusion : ' You will greet your dear
wife very kindly from us, and wish her many thousand
good-nights, and if it is God's will, we shall be very glad
to be with her some day, and with you also, as well as with
her : this you may believe of us at all times.' In the last
years of his life Luther had to thank her for similar
greetings and inquiries after his own health and that of his
family.

In the tenth year of the new Elector's reign Luther
was able publicly and confidently to bear witness against
the calumnies brought against his government. ' There is
now,' he said ' thank God, a chaste and honourable manner

446 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS AND DEATH.

of life, truthful lips, and a generous hand stretched out to
help the Church, the schools, and the poor ; an earnest,
constant, faithful heart to honour the Word of God, to
punish the bad, to protect the good, and to maintain peace
and order. So pure also and praiseworthy is his married
life, that it can well serve as a beautiful example for
all, princes, nobles, and everyone — a Christian home as
peaceful as a convent, which men are so wont to praise.
God's Word is now heard daily, and sermons are well
attended, and prayer and praise are given to God, to say
nothing of how much the Elector himself reads and writes
every day.' Only one thing Luther could not and would
not justify, namely, that at times the Elector, especially
when he had company, drank too much at table. Un-
happily the vice of intemperance prevailed then not only
at court but throughout Germany. Still John Frederick
could stand a big drink better than many others, and, with
the exception of this failing, even his enemies must allow
him to have been endued with great gifts from God, and
all manner of virtues becoming a praiseworthy prince and '
a chaste husband. Luther's personal relations with the
Elector never made him scruple to express to him freely, in
his letters, words of censure as well as of praise.

In his academical lectures Luther devoted his chief
labours for several terms after 1531 to St. Paul's Epistle
to the Galatians. He had already commenced this task
before and during the contest about indulgences, his object
having been to expound to and impress upon his hearers
and readers the great truth of justification by faith, set
forth in that Epistle with such conciseness and power.
This doctrine he always regarded as a fundamental verity
and the groundwork of religion. In all its fulness and clear-
ness, and with all his old freshness, vigour, and intensity of
fervour, he now exhaustively discussed this doctrine. His
lectures, published, with a preface of his, by the Wittenberg
chaplain Borer in 1535, contain the most complete and

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 447

classical exposition of his Pauline doctrine of salvation.
In the introduction to these lectures he declared that it
was no new thing that he was offering to men, for by the
grace of God the whole teaching of St. Paul was now made
known ; but the greatest danger was, lest the devil should
again filch away that doctrine of faith and smuggle in once
more his own doctrine of human works and dogmas. It
could never be sufficiently impressed on man, that if the
doctrine of faith perished, all knowledge of the truth would
perish with it, but that if it flourished, all good things would
also flourish, namely, true religion, and the true worship
and glory of God. In his preface he says : ' One article — the
only solid rock — rules in my heart, namely, faith in Christ :
out of which, through which, and to which all my theological
opinions ebb and flow day and night.' To his friends he
says of the Epistle to the Galatians : ' That is my Epistle,
which I have espoused : it is my Katie von Bora.'

His sermons to his congregation were now much hin-
dered by the state of his health. It was his practice, how-
ever, after the spring of 1532, to preach every Sunday at
home to his family, his servants, and his friends.

But his greatest theological work, which he intended
for the service of all his countrymen, was the continuation
and final conclusion of his translation of the Bible. After
publishing in 1532 his translation of the Prophets, which
had cost him immense pains and industry, the Apocrypha
alone remained to be done ; — the books which, in bringing
out his edition of the Bible, he designated as inferior in
value to the Holy Scriptures, but useful and good to read.
Well might he sigh at times over the work. In November
1532, being then wholly engrossed with the book of Sirach,
he wrote to his friend Amsdorf saying that he hoped to
escape from this treadmill in three weeks, but no one can
discover any trace of weariness or vexation in the German
idiom in which he clothed the proverbs and apophthegms of
this book. Notwithstanding the length of time which his

448 LUTHER'S LATER YEARS AND DEATH.

task occupied, and his constant interruptions, it has turned
out a work of one mould and casting, and shows from the
first page to the last how completely the translator was
absorbed in his theme, and yet how closely his life and
thoughts were interwoven with those of his fellow country-
men, for whom he wrote and whose language he spoke.
In 1534 the whole of his German Bible was at length in
print, and the next year a new edition was called for. Of
the New Testament, with which Luther had commenced
the work, as many as sixteen original editions, and more
than fifty different reimpressions, had appeared up to 1533.
With regard to the wants of the Church, Luther looked
to the energy of the new Elector for a vigorous prosecution
of the work of visitation. A reorganisation of the Church
had been effected by these means, but many more evils had
been exposed than cured, nor had the visitations been yet
extended to all the parishes. The Elector John had already
called on Luther, together with Jonas and Melancthon, for
their opinion as to the propriety of resuming them, and
only four clays before his death he gave instructions on the
subject to his chancellor Bruck. John Frederick, in the
first year of his rule, did actually put the new visitation
into operation, in concert with his Landtag. The main
object sought at present was to bring about better discipline
among the members of the various congregations, and to
put . down the sins of drunkenness, unchastity, frivolous
swearing, and witchcraft. Luther and even Melancthon
were no longer required to give their services as visitors :
Luther's place on the commission for Electoral Saxony
was filled by Bugenhagen. His own views and prospects
in regard to the condition of the people remained gloomy.
He complains that the Gospel bore so little fruit against
the powers of the flesh and the world ; he did not ex-
pect any great and general change through measures of
ecclesiastical law, but trusted rather to the faithful preach-
ing of the Divine Word, leaving the issue to God. It was

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 449

particularly the nobles and peasants whom he had to
rebuke for open or secret resistance against this Word.
He exclaims in a letter to Spalatin, written in 1533 : ' 0
how shamefully ungrateful are our times ! Everywhere
nobles and peasants are conspiring in our country against
the Gospel, and meanwhile enjoy the freedom of it as in-
solently as they can ; God will judge in the matter ! ' He
had to complain besides of indifference and immorality in
his immediate neighbourhood, among his Wittenbergers.
Thus he addressed, on Midsummer Day 1534, after his
sermon, a severe rebuke to drunkards who rioted in taverns
during the time of Divine service, and he exhorted the
magistrates to do their duty by proceeding against them,
so as not to incur the punishment of the Elector or of God.
The territories of Anhalt, immediately adjoining the
dominions of the Saxon Elector, now openly joined the
Evangelical Confession, of which their prince, Wolfgang of
Kothen, had long been a faithful adherent; and Luther
contracted in this quarter new and close friendships, like
that which subsisted between himself and his own Elector.
Anhalt Dessau was under the government of three nephews
of Wolfgang, namely, John, Joachim, and George. They
had lost their father in early life. One of them had for his
guardian the strictly Catholic Elector of Brandenburg, the
second, Duke George of Saxony, and the third, the Cardinal
Archbishop Albert. George, born in 1507, was made in 1518
canon at Merseburg, and afterwards prebendary of Magde-
burg cathedral. The Cardinal had taken peculiar interest
in him ever since his boyhood, on account of his excellent
abilities, and he did honour to his office by his fidelity, zeal,
and purity of life. The new teaching caused him severe
internal struggles. His theological studies showed him
how rotten were the foundations of the Eomish system,
but, on the other hand, the new doctrine awakened suspicions
on his part lest, with its advocacy of gospel liberty and

G G

45o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

justification by faith, it might tempt to sedition and im-
morality. But it finally won his heart, when he learned to
know it in its pure form through the Augsburg Confession
and the Apology of Melancthon, while the Catholic Kefuta-
tion drawn up for the Diet of Augsburg excited his disgust.
His two brothers, whose devoutness of character their
enemies could no more dispute than his own, became
converts also to Protestantism. In 1532 they appointed
Luther's friend Nicholas Hausmann their court-preacher,
and invited Luther and Melancthon to stay with them at
Worlitz. George, in virtue of his office as archdeacon
and prebendary of Magdeburg, himself undertook the visi-
tation, and had the candidates for the office of preacher
examined at Wittenberg. Luther eulogised the two brothers
as ' upright princes, of a princely and Christian disposition,'
adding that they had been brought up by worthy and God-
fearing parents. He kept up a close and intimate friend-
ship with them, both personally and by letter. A disposi-
tion to melancholy on the part of Joachim gave Luther an
opportunity of corresponding with him. While cheering
him with spiritual consolation, he recommended him to
seek for mental refreshment in conversation, singing, music,
and cracking jokes. Thus he wrote to him in 1534 as
follows : ' A merry heart and good courage, in honour and
discipline, are the best medicine for a young man— aye, for
all men. I, who have spent my life in sorrow and weari-
ness, now seek for pleasure and take it wherever I can
.... Pleasure in sin is the devil, but pleasure shared with
good people in the fear of God, in discipline and honour,
is well-pleasing to God. May your princely Highness be
always cheerful and blessed, both inwardly in Christ, and
outwardly in His gifts and good things. He wills it so, and
for that reason He gives us His good things to make use of,
that we may be happy and praise Him for ever.'

During these years, the negotiations concerning the
general affairs of the Church, the restoration of harmony in

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 451

the Christian Church of the West, and the internal union
of the Protestants, still proceeded, though languidly and
with little spirit.

With the promise, and pending the assembly, of a
Council, the Eeligious Peace had been at length concluded.
Before the close of 1532 the Emperor actually succeeded in
inducing Pope Clement, at a personal interview with him at
Bologna, to announce his intention to convoke a Council
forthwith. He urged him to do so by frightening him with
the prospect of a German national synod, such as even the
orthodox States of the Empire might resolve on, in the
event of the Pope obstinately opposing a Council, and in
that case, of a possible combination of the entire German
nation against the Papal see. He knew, indeed, well
enough, that the Holy Father, in making this promise, had
no intention whatever of keeping it. The Pope now sent a
nuncio to the German princes, to make preparations for
giving effect to his promise ; the Emperor sent with him
an ambassador of his own, as well for his control as his
support.

When the nuncio and ambassador reached John Frede-
rick at Weimar, the Elector consulted with Luther, Bugen-
hagen, Jonas, and Melancthon about the object of their
coming, and for that purpose, on June 15, 1533, he came in
person to Wittenberg, and had an opinion drawn up in
writing. The Papal invitation to the Council stated that,
agreeably with the demands of the Germans, it should be a
free Christian Council, and also that it should be held in ac-
cordance with ancient usage as from the beginning. Luther
declared that this was merely a ' muttering in the dark,'
half angel-like, half devil-like. For if by the words ' from
the beginning ' were meant the primitive Christian
assemblies, such as those of the Apostles (Acts xv.), then
the Council now intended was bound to act according to
the Word of God, freely, and without regard to any future
Councils ; a Council on the other hand, held according to

G G 2

452 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

previous usage, as, for example, that of Constance, was a
Council contrary to the Word of God, and held in mere
human blindness and wantonness. The Pope, in describing
the Council proposed by himself as a free one, was making
sport of the Emperor, the request of the Evangelicals, and
the decrees of the Diet. How could the Pope possibly
tolerate a free Christian Council when he must be quite
aware how disadvantageous such a Council would be to
himself ? Luther's advice was briefly summed up in this :
to restrict themselves to the bare formalities of speech
required, and to wait for further events. ' I think it is
best,' he said, ' not to busy ourselves at present with any-
thing more than what is necessary and moderate, and that
can give no handle to the Pope or the Emperor to accuse
us of intemperate conduct. Whether there be a Council
or not, the time will come for action and advice.' And
it soon became clear enough, that Clement at any rate
would not convene a Council. He now entered into an
understanding with King Francis, who was again meditating
an attack against the power of Charles V., listened to his
proposal that the Council might be abandoned, and in
March 1534 announced to the German princes that, agree-
ably to the King's wish, he had resolved to adjourn its
convocation.

How firmly Luther persisted — Council or no Council —
in his uncompromising opposition to the Piomish system,
was now shown by several of his new writings, more
especially by his treatise * On private Masses and the
Consecration of Priests.' Concerning private masses, and
the sacrifice of Christ's Body supposed to be there offered,
he now declared that, where the ordinance of Christ was
so utterly perverted, Christ's Body was assuredly not
present at all, but simple bread and simple wine was wor-
shipped by the priest in vain idolatry, and offered for others
to worship in like manner. He knew how they would
'come rolling up to him with the words, " Church, Church;

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 453

custom, custom," just as they had answered him once before
in his attack on indulgences ; but neither the Church nor
custom had been able to preserve indulgences from their
fate.' In the Church, even under the Popedom, he
recognised a holy place, for in it was baptism, the read-
ing of the Gospel, prayer, the Apostles' Creed, &c. But he
repeats now, what he had said in his most pungent writings
during the earlier struggles of the Reformation, namely,
that devilish abominations had entered into this place, and
so penetrated it with their presence, that only the light of
the Holy Spirit would enable one to distinguish between
the place itself and these abominations. He contrasts the
mass-holding priests and their stinking oil of consecration
with the universal Christian priesthood and the evangelical
office of preacher. To the principle of this priesthood he
still firmly adhered, faithless though he saw the large mass
of the congregations to the priestly character with which
baptism had invested them, and strictly as he had to guide
his action, in the appointment and outward constitution of
that office, by existing circumstances and historical require-
ments. Thus he repeats what he had said before, ' We
are all born simple priests and pastors in baptism ; and out
of such born priests, certain are chosen or called to certain
offices, and it is their duty to perform the various functions
of those offices for us all.' This universal priesthood he
would assert and utilise in the celebration of Divine service
and in the true Christian mass ; and he appeals for that
purpose to the true worship of God by an Evangelical
congregation. ' There,' he says, ' our priest or minister
stands before the altar, having been duly and publicly
called to his priestly office ; he repeats publicly and dis-
tinctly Christ's words of institution ; he takes the Bread
and Wine, and distributes it according to Christ's words ;
and we all kneel beside and around him, men and women,
young and old, master and servant, mistress and maid,
all holy priests together, sanctified by the Blood of Christ

454 LUTHER AXD THE PROTESTANTS.

And in such our priestly dignity are we there, and (as
pictured in Revelations iv.) we have our crowns of gold
on our heads, harps in our hands, and golden censers ;
and we do not let our priest proclaim for himself the
ordinance of Christ, but he is the mouthpiece of us all,
and we all say it with him from our hearts, and with
sincere faith in the Lamb of God, Who feeds us with His
Body and Blood.'

In 1533 Erasmus published a work wherein he en-
deavoured to effect in his own way the restoration of unity
in the Church, by exhorting men to abolish practical
abuses and show submission in doctrinal disputes, profess-
ing for his own part unvarying subjection to the Church.
In opposition to him, Luther hit the right point in a
preface he wrote to the reply of the Marburg theologian
Corvinus. Erasmus, he said, only strengthened the Papists,
who cared nothing about a safe truth for their consciences,
but only kept on crying out ' Church, Church, Church.'
For he too kept on simply repeating that he wished to
follow the Church, whilst leaving everything doubtful and
undetermined until the Church had settled it. ' What,' asks
Luther, 'is to be done with those good souls, who, bound in
conscience by the word of Divine truth, cannot believe doc-
trines evidently contrary to Scripture ? Shall we tell them
that the Pope must be obeyed so that peace and unity may
be preserved ? ' When, therefore, Erasmus sought to ob-
tain unity of faith by mutual concession and compromise,
Luther answered by declaring such unity to be impossible,
for the simple reason that the Catholics, by their very
boasting of the authority of the Church, absolutely refused
on their part to make any concession at all. But so far as
' unity of charity ' was concerned, he held that on that point
the Evangelicals needed no admonishment, for they were
ready to do and suffer all things, provided nothing was im-
posed upon them contrary to the faith. They had never
thirsted for the blood of their enemies, though the latter

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 455

would gladly persecute them with fire and sword. As for
Erasmus himself, Luther, as already stated, simply re-
garded him as a sceptic, who with his attitude of subjection to
the Church, sought only for peace and safety for himself
and his studies and intellectual enjoyments. Acting on
this view, Luther, in a letter to Amsdorf, written in 1534,
and intended for publication, heaped reproaches on Eras-
mus which undoubtedly he uttered in honest zeal, but in
which his zeal did not allow him to form an impartial
estimate of his opponent or his writings. He saw the bad
spirit of Erasmus reflected in other men, who, like him,
had seen the true character of the Eomish Church, but,
like him also, rejoined her communion. Instances of this
were found in his old friend Crotus, who had now entered
the service of Cardinal Albert, and as his ' plate-licker,'
as Luther called him, abused the Reformation ; and in
the theologian George Witzel, a pupil of Erasmus and
student at Wittenberg, who formerly had been suspected
even of sympathising with the peasants in their rebellion,
and of rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, but who now
wished for a Reformation after Erasmus' ideas, and was
one of the foremost literary opponents of the Lutheran
Reformation. Luther, however, deemed it superfluous,
after all that he had said against the master, to turn
also against his subordinates, and the mere mouthpieces
of his teaching.

In addition to Luther's polemics against Catholicism in
general, must be mentioned a fresh quarrel with Duke
George. The latter, in 1532, had expelled from Saxony
some evangelically disposed inhabitants of Leipzig and
Oschatz, decreed that everyone should appear once a year
at church for confession, and ordered some seventy or
eighty families of Leipzig, who had refused to do so, to
quit his dominions. Luther sent letters, which were after-
wards published, of comfort to the exiled, and of exhortation
and advice to those who were threatened. Duke George

456 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

thereupon complained to the Elector that Luther was ex-
citing his subjects to sedition. Luther, in reply, spoke
out again with double vehemence in a public vindication,
whilst George made Cochlseus write against him. Further
quarrelling was ended by the two princes agreeing, in
November 1533, to settle certain matters in dispute,
and their theologians also were commanded to keep at
peace. With regard to the future, however, Luther had
spoken words of significance and weight to his persecuted
brethren at Leipzig, when he reminded them what great
and unexpected things God had done since the Diet of
Worms, and how many bloodthirsty persecutors He had
since then snatched away. 'Let us wait a little while,'
he said, ' and see what God will bring to pass. Who knows
what God will do after the Diet of Augsburg, even before
ten years have gone by ? '

Firmly, however, as Luther refused to listen to any
surrender in matters of faith, or to any subjection to a
Catholic Council of the old sort, he desired no less to adhere
loyally to the 'political concord.' His whole heart and
sympathies, as a fellow- Christian and a good German, went
out with the German troops in their march against the
Turks, who he hoped might be well routed by the Em-
peror. He never reflected how perilous the consequences
of a decisive victory by Charles V. over his foreign enemies
would be for the Protestants of Germany, and how divided,
therefore, these must feel, at least in their hopes and wishes,
during the progress of the war. He only saw in him again
the ' dear good Emperor.' He wished him like success
against his evil-minded French enemy. The Pope especi-
ally he reproached for his persistent ill-will to the Emperor.
The Popes, he said, had always been hostile to the Em-
perors, and had betrayed the best of them and wantonly
thwarted their desires.

Early in 1534 Philip of Hesse set in earnest about his
scheme, so momentous for Protestantism,, of forcibly ex-

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 457

pelling King Ferdinand from Wiirtemberg, and restoring it
to the exiled Duke Ulrich. The latter, whom the Swabian
League in 1519, upon a decision of the Emperor and
Empire, had deprived of his territory, and transferred it to
the House of Austria, was staying with the Landgrave in
1529, with whom he attended the conference at Marburg,
and shared his views on Church matters. Since then the
Swabian League was dissolved, and Philip seized this favour-
able opportunity to interfere on behalf of his friend. The
King of France promised his aid, and in Germany, especi-
ally among the Catholic Bavarians, a strong desire prevailed
to weaken the power of Austria. Luther's public judg-
ment being of such weight, and his counsels so influential
with the Elector Frederick, Philip informed him, through
pastor Ottinger of Cassel, of his preparations for war, lest
he might otherwise be wrongly given to understand that he
was meditating a step against the Emperor. His inten-
tion, he declared, was merely to ' restore and reinstate
Duke Ulrich to his rights in all fairness,' in the sight of
God and of his Imperial Majesty. He 'belonged to no
faction or sect : ' — this, wrote Ottinger, he was ' instructed
by his princely Highness not to conceal from Luther.' The
latter, however, at a conference with his Elector and the
Landgrave at Weimar, protested against a breach of the
public peace, as tending to bring disgrace upon the gospel ;
and the Elector, in consequence, kept aloof from the enter-
prise. Philip, however, persisted, and carried it through
with rapidity and success. Ferdinand, being helpless in
the absence of the Emperor, consented, in the treaty of
Cadan, to the restoration of Ulrich, who immediately set
about a reformation of the Church in Wiirtemberg. Luther
recognised in this result the evident hand of God, in that,
contrary to all expectation, nothing was destroyed and peace
was happily restored. God would bring the work to an end.
Meanwhile the Schmalkaldic allies clung tenaciously to
their league, and were intent on still further strengthening

458 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

their position and preparing themselves for all emergencies.
No scruples as to whether, if the Emperor should break
the peace, they could venture to turn their arms against
him, any longer disturbed them. The terms extorted
from King Ferdinand by the Landgrave's victorious cam-
paign, were also in their favour. Ferdinand, in the treaty
of Cadan, promised to secure them against the suits which
the Imperial Chamber, notwithstanding the Eeligious
Peace, still continued to institute against them, in return
for which John Frederick and his allies consented to recog-
nise his election as King of the Romans.

And in the interests and for the objects represented by
the league, namely, to oppose a sufficiently strong and com-
pact power to Roman Catholicism and its menaces, those
further attempts were now made to promote internal union
among the Protestants, to which Butzer had so unremit-
tingly devoted his labours, and which the Landgrave Philip
among the princes considered of the utmost value.

Luther, although he admitted having formed a more
favourable opinion of Zwingli as a man, since their personal
interview7 at Marburg, in no way altered his opinion of
Zwinglianism or of the general tendency of his doctrines.
Thus in a letter of warning sent by him in December 1532
to the burgomaster and town-council of Minister, he classed
Zwingli with Miinzer and other heads of the Anabaptists, as
a band of fanatics whom God had judged, and pointed out
that whoever once followed Zwingli, Miinzer, or the Ana-
baptists, would very e isily be seduced into rebellion and
attacks on civil government. At the beginning of the next
year he published a ' Letter to those at Frankfort-on-the-
Main,' in order to counteract the Zwinglian doctrines and
agitations there prevailing. He also warned the people of
Augsburg against their preachers, inasmuch as they pre-
tended to accept the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacrament,
but in reality did nothing of the kind. He abstamed from
entering into any further controversy against the substance

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 459

of doctrines opposed to his own. He was concerned not
so much about the victory of his own doctrine, which he left
with confidence in God's hands, but lest, under the guise of
agreement with him, error should creep in and deceit be
practised in a matter so sacred and important. He always
felt suspicious of Butzer on this point.

He now saw the evil and terrible fruits of that spirit
which had possessed Miinzer and the Anabaptists, — such
fruits as he had always expected from it. In Miinster,
where his warning had passed unregarded, the Anabaptists
had been masters since February 1534. As the pretended
possessors of Christianity in its intellectual and spirit^?!
purity, they established there a kingdom of the saints, with
a mad, sensual fanaticism, a coarse worship of the flesh,
and a wild thirst for blood. This kingdom was demolished
the next year by the combined forces of the Emperor and
the bishop, but a further consequence of their defeat was
the exclusion of Protestantism from the city, which sub-
mitted again to episcopal authority. About the Zwin-
glian ' Sacramentarianism ' Luther wrote at that time,
' God will mercifully do away with this scandal, so that
it may not, like that of Miinster, have to be done away
with by force.'

Butzer, however, did not allow himself to be deterred
or wearied. His wish was that the agreement in doctrine
which had already been arrived at between Luther and the
South Germans admitted to the Swabian League, should be
publicly and emphatically acknowledged and expressed.
He laboured and hoped to convince even the people of
Zurich and the other Swiss that they attached — as, in fact,
they did — too harsh a meaning to Luther's doctrines, and
so to induce them to reconcile them as nearly as they could
with their own. But they could not be persuaded further
than to admit that Christ's Body was really present in the
Sacrament, as food for the souls of those who partook in
faith. They were as suspicious, from their standpoint, of

460

LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

his attempts at mediation, as Luther was from his. Butzer
represented to the Landgrave that the South German towns,
his allies, were united in doctrine, and that the only objec-
tion raised by the Swiss was to the notion that Christ and
His Body became actual ' food for the stomach,' — a notion
which Luther also refused wholly to entertain. For when
the latter said that Christ's Body was eaten with the mouth,
he explained at the same time that the mouth indeed only
touched the bread and did not reach this Body, and that his
doctrine was simply a declaration of a sacramental unity, in

Fig. 43.— Butzer. (From the old original woodcut of Keusner.)

so far as the mouth eats the bread which is united with the
body in the Sacrament. The matter, said Butzer, was a
mere dispute about words, and was only so difficult to
settle because they had ' abused and sent each other to the
devil too much.'

The Landgrave Philip wrote to Luther, and Luther now
repeated with warmth his own desire for a ' well-established
union,' which would enable the Protestants to oppose a
common front to the immoderate arrogance of the PapistSc

LUTHER UNDER JOHN FREDERICK. 461

He only warned him again lest the matter should remain
' rocten and unstable in its foundations.' The Landgrave
then arranged, with Luther's approval, a conference between
Melancthon and Butzer at Cassel for December 27, 1534.
Luther sent to them a ' Consideration, whether unity is pos-
sible or not.' He repeated in this tract, with studied pre-
cision and emphasis, those tenets of his doctrine to which
Butzer had referred. The matter, he said, ought not to
remain uncertain or ambiguous. But when Butzer now
agreed with Luther's own opinion, and sent to him at
Wittenberg an explanation that Christ's Body was truly
present, but not as food for the stomach, Luther, in
January 1535, declared as his judgment, that, since the South
German preachers were willing to teach in accordance with
the Augsburg Confession, he, for his part, neither could nor
would refuse such concord ; and since they distinctly con-
fessed that Christ's Body was really and substantially pre-
sented and eaten, he could not, if their hearts agreed with
their words, find fault with these words. He would only
prefer, as there was still too much mistrust among his own
brethren, that the act of concord should not be concluded
quite so suddenly, but that time should be allowed for a
general quieting down. ' Thus,' he said, ' our people will
be able to moderate their suspicion or ill-will, and finally let
it drop; and if thus the troubled waters are calmed on both
sides, a real and permanent union can be ultimately brought
about.' Of the Swiss no notice was taken in these nego-
tiations.

Meanwhile Butzer and Philip had to rest content with
this ; and was it not an important step forwards ? This work
of union, together with the Council which was to help in
uniting the whole Church, took a prominent place during
the next few years of Luther's life and labours.

462 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

CHAPTEE II.

NEGOTIATIONS RESPECTING A COUNCIL AND UNION AMONG THE

PROTESTANTS. THE LEGATE VERGERIUS 1535. THE

WITTENBERG CONCORD 1536.

Pope Paul III., who succeeded Clement VII. in October
1534, seemed at once determined to bring about in reality
the promised Council. And in fact he was quite earnest in
the matter. He was not so indifferent as his predecessor
to the real interests of the Church and the need of certain
reforms, and he hoped, like a clever politician, to turn the
Council, which could now no longer be evaded, to the
advantage of the Papacy. With this object, and with a
view in particular of arranging the place where the Council
should be held, which he proposed should be Mantua, he
sent a nuncio, the Cardinal Vergerius, to Germany.

In August 1535 Luther was desired by his Elector to
submit an opinion on the proposals of the Pope. He
thought it sufficient to repeat the answer he had given two
years before, namely, that the prince had then fully ex-
pressed his zeal for the restoration of Church unity by
means of a Council, but at the same time had required that
its decisions should be strictly according to God's Word,
and declared that he could not give any definite consent
without his allies. Luther still declined, moreover, to
believe that the project of a Council was sincere.

The university of Wittenberg had been removed during
the summer to Jena, on account of a fresh outbreak of
the plague, or at all events an alarm of it, and there they
remained till the following February. Luther, however,

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 463

would not listen to the idea of leaving Wittenberg. This
time he could stay there in all rest and cheerfulness with
Bugenhagen, and make merry with the idle fears of others.
To the Elector, who was full of anxiety about him, Luther
wrote on July 9, saying that only one or two cases of the
disease had appeared ; the air was not yet poisoned. The
dog-days being at hand, and the young people frightened,
they might as well be allowed to walk about, to calm their
thoughts, until it was seen what would happen. He noticed,
however, that some had ' caught ulcers in their pockets,
others colic in their books, and others gout in their
papers ; ' some, too, had no doubt eaten their mother's
letters, and hence got heart-ache and homesickness. The
Christian authorities, he said, must provide some strong
medicine against such a disease, lest mortality might arise
in consequence, — a medicine that would defy Satan, the
enemy of all arts and discipline. He was astonished to
find how much more was known of the great plague at
Wittenberg in other parts than in the town itself, where
in truth it did not exist, and how7 much bigger and fatter
lies grew the farther they travelled. He assured his friend
Jonas, who had gone away with the university, that, thanks
to God, he was living there in solitude, in perfect health
and comfort ; only there was a dearth of beer in the town,
though he had enough in his own cellar. Nor did Luther
afterwards give way to fear when compelled to acknowledge
several fatal cases of the plague, and when his own coach-
man once seemed to be stricken with it. He himself was
a sufferer, throughout the winter, from a cough and other
catarrhic affections. ' But my greatest illness,' he wrote
to a friend, ' is, that the sun has so long shone upon me, —
a plague which, as you know well, is very common, and
many die of it.'

The Papal nuncio now arrived at Wittenberg, and desired
to speak to Luther in person. After an interview at Halle
with the Archbishop Albert, he had taken the road through

464 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

Wittenberg on his way to visit the Elector of Brandenburg
at Berlin. On the afternoon of November 6, a Saturday,
he entered Wittenberg in state, with twenty- one horses and
an ass, intending to take up his quarters there for the
night, and was received with all due honour at the Elector's
castle by the governor Metzsch. Luther was invited, at the
nuncio's request, to sup with hirn that evening, but as the
former declined the invitation, he was asked wilh Bugen-
hagen to take breakfast with him the next morning. It
was the first time, since his summons by Caietan at Augs-
burg in 1518, that Luther had to speak with a Papal
legate — Luther, who had long since been condemned by the
Pope as an abominable child of corruption, and who in
turn had declared the Pope to be Antichrist. So im-
portant must Yergerius have thought it, to attempt to influ-
ence, if even only partially, the powerful adviser of the
Protestant princes, and thereby to prevent him from check-
mating his plans in regard to a Council. And in this
respect Vergerius must have had considerable confidence in
himself.

The next morning Luther ordered his barber to come at
an unusually early hour. Upon the latter expressing his
surprise, Luther said jokingly, ' I have to go to the Papal
nuncio ; if only I look young when he sees me, he may
think " Fie, the devil, if Luther has played us such tricks
before he is an old man, what won't he do when he is
one?"' Then, in his best clothes and with a gold chain
round his neck, he drove to the castle with the town -priest
Bugenhagen (Pomeranus). 'Here go,' he said, as he stepped
into the carriage, ' the Pope of Germany and Cardinal
Pomeranus, the instruments of God ! '

Before the legate he ' acted,' as he expressed it, ' the
complete Luther.' He employed towards him only the
xnost indispensable forms of civility, and made use of the
•most ill-humoured' language. Thus he asked him
Vhether he was looked upon in Italy as a drunken

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 465

German. When they came to speak about the settlement
of the Church questions in dispute by a Council, Vergerius
reminded him that one individual fallible man had no right
to consider himself wiser than the Councils, the ancient
Fathers, and other theologians of Christendom. To this
Luther replied that the Papists were not really in earnest
about a Council, and, if it were held, they would only care
to treat about such trifles as monks' cowls, priests' ton-
sures, rules of diet, and so forth ; whereupon the legate
turned to one of his attendants, who was sitting by, with
the words ' he has hit the right nail on the head.' Luther
went on to assert that they, the Evangelicals, had no need
of a Council, being already fully assured about their own
doctrine, though other poor souls might need one, who
were led astray by the tyranny of the Popedom. Never-
theless he promised to attend the proposed Council, even
though he should be burned by it. It was the same to
him-, he said, whether it was held at Mantua, Padua, or
Florence, or anywhere else. ' Would you come to Bologna?'
said Yergerius. Luther asked, thereupon, to whom
Bologna belonged, and on being told ' to the Pope,'
' Gracious heavens,' he exclaimed, ' has the Pope seized
that town too? — Very well, I will come to you even
there.' Vergerius politely hinted that the Pope himself
would not refuse to come to Wittenberg. ' Let him come,'
said Luther ; ' we shall be very glad to see him.' ' But,' said
Vergerius, ' would you have him come with arms or with-
out ? ' 'As he pleases,' replied Luther; ' we shall be ready
to receive him in either way.' When the legate, after their
meal, was mounting his horse to depart, he said to Luther,
' Be sure to hold yourself in readiness for the Council.'
' Yes, sir,' was the reply, ' with this my very neck and head.'
Vergerius afterwards related that he had found Luther
to be coarse in conversation, and his Latin bad, and had
answered him as far as possible in monosyllables. The

H H

466 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

excuse he urged for his interview was that Luther and
Bugenhagen were the only men of learning at Wittenberg,
with whom he could converse in Latin. He evidently felt
himself unpleasantly deceived in the expectations and
projects he had formed before the meeting. Ten years
later, when his conflict with Evangelical doctrine had
taught him thoroughly its real meaning and value, this
high dignitary himself became a convert to it.

In the meantime, while the eyes of all were fixed upon
the approaching Council, the state of affairs in Germany
was eminently favourable to the Evangelicals.

The Emperor, during the summer of 1535, was detained
abroad by his operations against the corsair Chaireddin
Barbarossa in Tunis, and Luther rejoiced over the victory
with which God blessed his arms. The King of France was
threatening with fresh claims on Italian territory. The
jealousy between Austria and Bavaria still continued. With
regard to the Church, King Ferdinand learned to value
Luther anism at any rate as a barrier against the progress
of the more dangerous doctrines of Zwingli. John Frederick
journeyed in November 1535 to Vienna, to receive from
him at length, in the name of the Emperor, the investiture
of the Electorship, and met with a friendly reception.

Under these circumstances the Schmalkaldic League
resolved, at a convention at Schmalkald in December 1535,
to invite other States of the Empire, which were not yet
recognised in the Pieligious Peace as members of the
Augsburg Confession, to join them. The Dukes Barnim
and Philip of Pomerania had now accepted this Con=
fession. Philip also married a sister of John Frederick.
Luther performed the marriage service on the evening of
February 27 at Torgau, and Bugenhagen pronounced, the
next morning, the customary benediction on the young
couple, Luther being prevented from doing so by a fresh
attack of giddiness. The following spring a convention of
the allies at Frankfort-on-the-Main received the Duke of

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 467

Wiirtemberg, the Dukes of Pomerania, the princes of
Anhalt, and several towns into their league.

Outside Germany, the Kings of France and England
sought fellowship with the allies. Ecclesiastical and
religious questions, of course, had first to be considered;
and Luther with others was called on for his advice.

King Francis, so many of whose Evangelical subjects
Were complaining of oppression and persecution, was
anxious, as he was now meditating a new campaign in
Italy, to secure an alliance with the German Protestants
against the Emperor, and accordingly pretended with
great solicitude that he had in view important reforms in
the Church, and would be glad of their assistance. They
were invited to send Melancthon and Luther to him for
that purpose. With these he negotiated also in person.
Melancthon felt himself much attracted by the prospect
thus opened to him of rendering important and useful
service. The Elector, however, refused him permission
to go, and rebuked him for having already entangled
himself so far in the affair. Melancthon's expectations
were certainly very vain : the King only cared for his
political interests, and in no case would he grant to any of
his subjects the right to entertain or act upon religious
convictions which ran counter to his own theory of the
Church. Moreover, John Frederick's relations with King
Ferdinand had by this time become* so peaceful, that the
Elector was anxious not to disturb them by an alliance with
the enemy of the Emperor. Melancthon, however, was
much excited by his refusal and reproof; he suspected that
others had maliciously intrigued against him with his prince.
Luther, at first moved by Melancthon's wish and the
entreaties of French Evangelicals, had earnestly begged
the Elector to permit Melancthon ' in the name of God
to go to France.' ' Who knows,' he said, ' what God may
wish to do ? ' He was afterwards startled on his friend's

HH 2

468 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

account by the severe letter of the Elector, but was obliged
to acknowledge that the latter was right in his distrust of
the affair.

An alliance with England would have promised greater
security, inasmuch as with Henry VIII. there was no longer
any fear of his return to the Papacy, and with regard to
the proceedings about his marriage, a reconciliation with
the Emperor was scarcely to be expected. Envoys from
him appeared in 1535 in Saxony and at the meeting at
Schmalkald. Henry also wished for Melancthon, in order
to discuss with him matters of orthodoxy and Church
government, and Luther again begged permission of the
Elector for him to go. But it was clearly seen from the
negotiations conducted with the English envoys in Germany,
how slender were the hopes of effecting any agreement with
Henry VIII. on the chief points, such as the doctrine of
Justification or of the mass, since the English monarch
insisted every whit as strictly upon that Catholic orthodoxy,
to which he still adhered, as he did upon his opposition to
Papal power. Luther had already in January grown sick
to loathing of the futile negotiations with England : ' pro-
fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools ' (Kom. i.
22). He advised therefore, in his opinion submitted to the
Elector, that they should have patience with respect to
England and the proper reforms in that quarter, but
guarded himself against deviating on that account from the
fundamental doctrines of belief, or conceding more to the
King of England than they would to the Emperor and the
Pope. As to contracting a political alliance with Henry, he
left that question, as a temporal matter, for the prince and
his advisers to decide ; but it seemed to him dangerous,
where no real sympathy prevailed. How hazardous it was
tc have anything to do with Henry VIII. was shown im-
mediately after by his conduct towards his second wife Anna
Boleyn, whom he had executed on May 19, 1536. Luther
called this act a monstrous tragedy.

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 469

Among the German Protestants, however, the negotia-
tions respecting the Sacramental doctrine were happily
brought to maturity in a duly formulated ' Concord.'
Peace also was secured with the Swiss, and therewith the
possibility of an eventual alliance.

Now that Luther had once felt confidence in these
attempts at union, he took the work in hand himself and
proceeded steadily with it. In the autumn of 1535 he sent
letters to a number of South German towns, addressed to
preachers and magistrates — to Augsburg, Strasburg, Ulm,
and Esslingen. He proposed a meeting or conference, at
which they might learn to know each other better, and see
what was to be borne with, what complied with, and what
winked at. He wished nothing more ardently than to be
permitted to end his life, now near its close, in peace, charity,
and unity of spirit with his brethren in the faith. They
also should ' continue thus, helping, praying, and striving
that such unity might be firm and lasting, and that the
devil's jaws might be stopped, who had gloried hugely in
their want of unity, crying out " Ha ! ha ! I have won." '
These letters plainly show how glad was Luther now to see
the good cause so advanced, and to be able to further it yet
more. Both in them and in his correspondence with the
Elector about the proposed meeting, he advised not to en-
list too many associates, that there might be no restless,
obstinate heads among them, to spoil the affair. He knew
of such among his own adherents — men who went too far
for him in the zeal of dogma.

The conference was appointed to be held at Eisenach in
the following spring, on May 14, the fourth Sunday after
Easter. Luther's state of health would not permit him to
undertake a journey to any distant place or in the winter.
Just at this time, moreover, in March 1536, he had been
tormented for weeks by a new malady, an intolerable pain
in the left hip. Later on, he told one of his friends that
he had with Christ risen from the dead at Easter (April 16),

47o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

for he had been so ill at that time, that he firmly believed
that his time had come to depart and be with Christ, for
which he longed.

The South Germans readily accepted the invitation.
The Strasburgers passed it on to the Swiss, and specially
desired that Bullinger from Zurich might take part in the
conference. The Swiss, however, who had received no direct
invitation from Wittenberg, declined the proposal ; they
wished to adhere simply to their own articles of faith, which
they had just formulated anew in the so-called ' First
Helvetian Confession,' and which had expressly acknow-
ledged at least a spiritual nutriment to be offered in the
Sacramental symbols. They could not see anything to be
gained by personal discussion. But they requested that their
Confession might be kindly shown to Luther, and Bullinger
sent him special greetings from himself and the Evangelical
Churches of Switzerland. The preachers who were sent as
deputies to Eisenach from the various South German towns,
journeyed by way of Frankfort-on-the-Main, where just then
the Schmalkaldic allies were assembled. On May 10 they
went on, eleven in number, to Eisenach ; they represented
the communities of Strasburg, Augsburg, Memmingen,
Ulm, Esslingen, Beutlingen, Fiirfeld, and Frankfort.

At the last moment the whole success, nay even the
very plan of the conference, was imperilled. Melancthon had
already been anxious and despondent, fearing a fresh and
violent outburst of the controversy as a consequence of the
impending discussion. Luther had just been freshly excited
against the Zwinglians by a writing found among the papers
Zwingli left behind him, and which Bullinger had published
with high eulogiums upon the author, and also by a corre-
spondence that had just appeared between Zwingli and
Oecolampadius. Butzer, however, and his friends still
wished to maintain their intimacy with these Zwinglians,
and this correspondence was prefaced by an introduction
from his own pen. Furthermore, letters had reached

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION. 471

Luther, representing that the people in the South German
towns were not really taught the true Bodily Presence in
the Sacrament. In addition to this, severe after-effects of
his old illness again attacked him, rendering him unfit to
travel to Eisenach. Accordingly, on May 12 he wrote to
the deputies begging them to journey as far as Grimma,
where he would either appear in person, or, if too weak,
could at all events more easily communicate by writing to
them and his friends.

The deputies, however, came straight to him at Witten-
berg. In Thuringia they were joined by the pastors
Menius of Eisenach and Myconius of Gotha, two of
Luther's friends who with him were honestly desirous of
unity. The constant personal intercourse kept up during
the journey served greatly to promote a mutual under-
standing.

Thus on Sunday, May 21, they arrived at length at
"Wittenberg.

The next day, the two Strasburgers, Capito and Butzer,
held a preliminary interview with Luther, whose physical
weakness made any lengthy negotiations very difficult.
He expressed to them candidly and emphatically his desire,
repeated again and again, that they should declare them-
selves at one with him. He would rather, however, leave
matters as they had been, than enter into a union which
might be only feigned or artificial, and must make bad
worse. With regard to the Zwinglian publications, Butzer
answered that he and his friends were in no way responsible
for them, and that the preface, which consisted of a letter
from himself, had been printed without his knowledge and
consent. With regard to the doctrine of the Sacrament,
the only question now left to decide was whether the un-
worthy and godless communicants verily partook of the
Lord's Body. Luther maintained that they did : it was to
him the necessary consequence of a Bodily Presence, such
as took place simply by virtue of the institution and sure

472 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

promise of Christ, by which faith must abide in full trust
and belief. Butzer expressed his decided assent to the
doctrine of objective Presence and presentation ; but the
actual reception of the Lord's Body, as offered from above,
he could only concede to those communicants who, at
least through some faith, placed themselves in an in-
ward spiritual relation to that Body and accepted the institu-
tion of Christ, not to those who were simply there with their
bodies and bodily mouths. To enable one to speak of a par-
taking of the Body, he was satisfied with that faith which
was not exactly the right faith of the heart, and was con-
nected with moral unworthiness, so that such guests ate to
their own condemnation. He thus acknowledged that the
unworthy, but not the man wholly devoid of faith, could par-
take of the Body and Blood of Christ. Luther, therefore,
could feel assured that Butzer agreed with him in rejecting
every view which held that, in the Sacrament, the Body of
Christ was present only in the subjective representation and
the imagination, or that faith there rose up out of itself, so
to speak, to the Lord, instead of merely grasping at what was
offered, and thereby being quickened and made strong.
But it is unmistakable, that Luther and Butzer conceived
in different ways both the manner of the Presence and
the manner of partaking, — each of these, indeed, in a
mysterious sense and one very difficult to be defined.
Luther could scarcely have failed to observe the difference,
which still remained between them, and the defect from
which, according to his own convictions, the doctrine of the
South Germans still suffered. The question was, whether
he could look beyond this, and whether in the doctrine for
which he had fought so keenly, he should be able and will-
ing to distinguish between what was essential on the one
hand, and what was non-essential or less essential on the
other.

On the Tuesday all the dej)uties assembled at his house,
together with his "Wittenberg friends, and Menius and

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION 473

Myconius. Butzer having spoken on the deputies' behalf,
Luther conferred with them separately, and after they had
declared their unanimous concurrence with Butzer, he with-
drew with his friends into another room for a private consul-
tation. On his return, he declared, on behalf of himself and
his friends, that, after having heard from all present their
answers and statement of belief, they were agreed with
them, and welcomed them as beloved brethren in the Lord.
As to the objection they had about the godless partakers, if
they confessed that the unworthy received with the other
communicants the Body of Christ, they would not quarrel
on that point. Luther, so Myconius tells us, spoke these
words with great spirit and animation, as was apparent
from his eyes and his whole countenance. Capito and
Butzer could not refrain from tears. All stood with folded
hands and gave thanks to God.

On the following days other points were discussed, such
as the significance of infant baptism, and the practice of
confession and absolution, as to which an understanding
was necessary, and was arrived at without any difficulty.
The South Germans had also to be reassured about some
individual forms of worship, unimportant in themselves,
and which they found to have been retained from Catholic
usage in the Saxon churches.

On the Thursday the proceedings were interrupted by
the festival of the Ascension. Luther preached the evening
sermon of that day on the text, ' Go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature.' Myconius relates
of this sermon, ' I have often heard Luther before, but it
seemed to me then as if not he alone were speaking, but
heaven was thundering in the name of Christ.'

On Saturday Butzer and Capito delivered themselves of
their commissions on behalf of the Swiss. Luther declared
after reading the Confession which they brought, that
certain expressions in it were objectionable, but added a
wish that the Strasburgers would treat with them further

474 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

on the subject, and the latter led him to hope that the
communities hi Switzerland, weary of dispute, desired
unity.

The spirit of brotherly union received a touching and
beautiful expression on the Sunday in the common celebra-
tion of the Sacrament, and in sermons preached by Alber
of Eeutlingen in the early morning, and by Butzer in the
middle of the day.

The next morning, May 29, the meeting concluded
with the signing of the articles which Melancthon had
been commissioned to draw up. They recognised the re-
ceiving of Christ's Body at the Sacrament by those who ' ate
unworthily,' without saying anything about the faithless.
The deputies who signed their names declared their common
acceptance of the Augsburg Confession and the Apology.
This formula, however, was only to be published after it had
received the assent of the communities whom it concerned,
together with their pastors and civil authorities. ' We must
be careful,' said Luther, ' not to raise the song of victory
prematurely, nor give others an occasion for complaining
that the matter was settled without their knowledge and
in a corner.' Luther himself began on the same Monday
to write letters, inviting assent from different quarters to
their proceedings. Among his own associates, at any rate,
his intimate friend Amsdorf at Magdeburg had not been so
conciliatory as himself: Luther waited eight days before
informing him of the result of the conference.

Thus, then, unity of confession was established for the
German Protestants, apart from the Swiss, for none of the
Churches which had been represented at the meeting re-
fused their assent. Luther now advanced a step towards
the Swiss by writing to the burgomaster Meyer at Basle,
who was particularly anxious for union, and who returned
him a very friendly and hopeful answer. Butzer sought to
work with them further in the same direction. But they
could not reconcile themselves to the Wittenberg articles.

THE COUNCIL AND INTERNAL UNION 475

They— that is to say, the magistrates and clergy of Zurich,
Berne, Basle, and some other towns — were content to express
their joy at Luther's present friendly state of mind, together
with a hope of future unity, and besought Butzer to inform
Luther further about their own Confession and their objec-
tions to his own. Butzer was anxious to do this at a con-
vention which the Schmalkaldic allies appointed to meet at
Schmalkald, in view of the Council having been announced
to be held in February 1537.

476 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

CHAPTEE III.

NEGOTIATIONS RESPECTING A COUNCIL AND UNION AMONG THE

Protestants (continuation) : — meeting at schmalkald,

1537. PEACE WITH THE SWISS. LUTHER'S FRIENDSHIP

WITH THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN.

A few days after the Protestants had effected an agreement
at Wittenberg the announcement was issued from Eome of
a Council, to be held at Mantua in the following year. The
Pope already indicated with sufficient clearness the action
he intended to take at it. He declared in plain terms that
the Council was to extirpate the Lutheran pestilence, and
did not even wish that the corrupt Lutheran books should
be laid before it, but only extracts from them, and these
with a Catholic refutation. Luther, therefore, had now to
turn his energies at once in this direction.

He agreed, nevertheless, with Melancthon that the
invitation should be accepted, although the Elector John
Frederick was opposed to such a Council from the very first.
It would be better, Luther thought, to protest at the
Council itself against any unlawful or unjust proceeding.
He hoped to be able to speak before the assembly at least
like a Christian and a man.

The Elector thereupon commissioned him to compile
and set forth the propositions or articles of faith, which,
according to his conviction, it would be necessary to insist on
at the Council, and directed him to call in for this purpose
other theologians to his assistance. Luther accordingly
drew up a statement. A few days after Christmas he laid
it before his Wittenberg colleagues, and likewise before

FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 477

Amsdorf of Magdeburg, Spalatin of Altenburg, and Agricola
of Eisleben. The last named was endeavouring to exchange
his post at the high school at Eisleben, under the Count of
Mansfeld, with whom he had fallen out, for a professor's
chair at Wittenberg, which had been promised him by the
Elector ; and now, on receiving his invitation to the con-
ference, he left Eisleben for good without permission, taking
his wife and child with him. Luther welcomed him as an
old friend and invited him to his house as a guest. Luther's
statement was unanimously approved, and sent to the
Elector on January 3.

Even in this summary of belief, intended as it was for
common acceptance and for submission to a Council, Luther
emphasised, with all the fulness and keenness peculiar to
himself throughout the struggle, his antagonism to Roman
Catholic dogma and Churchdom. Fondly as he clung at
that time to reconciliation among the Protestants, he saw
no possibility of peace with Rome.

As the first and main article he declared plainly that
faith alone in Jesus could justify a man ; on that point they
dared not yield, though heaven and earth should fall. The
mass he denounced as the greatest and most horrible
abomination, inasmuch as it was ' downright destructive of
the first article,' and as the chiefest of Papal idolatries ;
moreover, this dragon's tail had begotten many other kinds
of vermin and abominations of idolatry. With regard to
the Papacy itself, the Augsburg Confession had been content
to condemn it by silence, not having taken any notice of it
in its articles on the essence and nature of the Christian
Chureh. Luther now would have it acknowledged, ' that
the Pope was not by divine right (jure divino) or by warrant
of God's Word the head of all Christendom,' that position
belonging to One alone, by name Jesus Christ ; and,
furthermore, ' that the Pope was the true Antichrist, who
sets himself up and exalts himself above and against Christ.'
As for the Council, he expected that the Evangelicals there

478 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

present would have to stand before the Pope himself and the
devil, who would listen to nothing, but consider simply how
to condemn and kill them. They should, therefore, not kiss
the feet of their enemy, but say to him, ' The Lord rebuke
thee, Satan ! ' (Zach. iii. 2).

The allies accordingly were anxious to consult together
and determine at Schmalkald what conduct to pursue at
the Council. An imperial envoy and a Papal nuncio wished
also to attend their meeting. The princes and represen-
tatives of the towns brought their theologians with them
to the number of about forty in all. The Elector John
Frederick brought Luther, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, and
Spalatin.

On January 29 the Wittenberg theologians were sum-
moned by their prince to Torgau. From thence they
travelled slowly by Grimma and Altenburg, where they
were entertained with splendour at the prince's castles,
then by Weimar, where, on Sunday, February 4, Luther
preached a sermon, and so on to the place of meeting.
Luther had left his family and house in the care of his
guest Agricola. On February 7 they arrived at Schmal-
kald.

The theologians at first were left unemployed. The
members of the convention only gradually assembled. The
envoy of the Emperor came on the 14th. Luther made up
his mind for a stay there of four weeks. He preached on
the 9th in the town church before the prince himself.
The church he found, as he wrote to Jonas, so large
and lofty, that his voice sounded to him like that of a
mouse. During the first few days he enjoyed the leisure
and rejoiced in the healthy air and situation of the place.

He was already suffering, however, from the stone,
which had once before attacked him. A medical friend
ascribed it partly to the dampness of the inns and the
sheets he slept in. However, the attack passed off easily
this time, and on the 14th he was able to tell Jonas that he

FURTHER RECOXCILIATIOX. 479

was better. But he grew very tired of the idle time at
Schmalkald. He said jokingly about the good entertain-
ment there, that he and his friends were living with the
Landgrave Philip and the Duke of TYurteruberg like beggars,
who had the best bakers, ate bread and drank wine with
the Nurembergers, and received their meat and fish from
the Elector's court. They had the best trout in the world,
but they were cooked in a sauce with the other fish ; and
so on.

The Elector soon applied to him for an opinion as to
taking part in the Council, which Luther again recom-
mended should not be bluntly refused. A refusal, he said,
would exactly please the Pope, who wished for nothing so
much as obstacles to the Council ; it was for this reason
that, in speaking of the extirpation of heresy, he held up
the Evangelicals as a ' bugbear,' in order to frighten them
from the project. Good people might likewise object,
on the ground that the troubles with the Turks and the
Emperor's engagement in the war with France, were made
use of by the Evangelicals to refuse the Council, whilst in
reality the knaves at Eome were reckoning on the Turkish
and French wars to prevent the Council from coming to
pass.

Luther now received through Butzer the communica-
tions from Switzerland, together with a letter from Meyer,
the burgomaster of Basle. To the latter he sent on the 17th
of the month a cheerful and friendly reply. He did not
wish to induce him to make any further explanations and
promises, but his whole mind was bent upon mutual for-
giveness, and bearing with one another in patience and
gentleness. In this spirit he earnestly entreated Meyer to
work with him. 'Will you faithfully exhort your people,'
he said, ' that they may all help to quiet, soften, and
promote the matter to the best of their power, that they
may not scare the birds at roost.' He promised also, for
his part, ' to do his utmost in the same direction.'

48o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

This same day, however, Luther's malady returned ; he
concluded his letter with the words, ' I cannot write now
all I would, for I have heen a useless man all day, owing to
this painful stone.' The next day, Sunday, when he
preached a powerful sermon before a large congregation,
the malady became much worse, and a week followed of
violent pain, during which his body swelled, he was con-
stantly sick, and his weakness generally increased. Several
doctors, including one called in from Erfurt, did their
utmost to relieve him. ' They gave me physic,' he said
afterwards, 'as if I were a great ox.' Mechanical con-
trivances were employed, but without effect. ' I was
obliged,' he said, ' to obey them, that it might not look as
if I neglected my body.'

His condition appeared desperate. With death before
his eyes, he thought of his arch-enemy the Pope, who might
triumph over this, but over whom he felt certain of victory
even in death. ' Behold,' he cried to God, ' I die an enemy
of Thy enemies, cursed and banned by Thy foe, the Pope.
May he, too, die under Thy ban, and both of us stand at
Thy judgment bar on that day.' The Elector, deeply
moved, stood by his bed, and expressed his anxiety lest
God might take away with Luther His beloved Word.
Luther comforted him by saying that there were many
faithful men who, by God's help, would become a wall of
strength ; nevertheless, he could not conceal from the
prince his apprehension that, after he was gone, discord
would arise even among his colleagues at Wittenberg. The
Elector promised him to care for his wife and children as
his own. Luther's natural love for them, as he afterwards
remarked, made the prospect of parting very hard for him
to bear. To his sorrowing friends he still was able to be
humorous. When Melancthon, on seeing him, began to
cry bitterly, he reminded him of a saying of their friend,
the hereditary marshal, Hans Loser, that to drink good
beer was no art, but to drink sour beer, and then continued,

FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 481

in the words of Job, ' What, shall we receive good at the
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? ' And again :
'The wicked Jews,' he said, 'stoned Stephen; my stone,
the villain ! is stoning me.' But not for an instant did he
lose his trust in God and resignation to His will. When
afraid of going mad with the pain, he comforted himself
with the thought that Christ was his wisdom, and that
God's wisdom remained immutable. Seeing, as he did, the
devil at work in his torture, he felt confident that even if
the devil tore him to pieces Christ would revenge His
servant, and God would tear the devil to pieces in return.
Only one thing he would fain have prayed his God to grant
— that he might die in the country of his Elector ; but he
was willing and ready to depart whenever God might
summon him. Upon being seized with a fit of vomiting
he sighed, ' Alas, dear Father, take the little soul into Thy
hand ; I will be grateful to Thee for it. Go hence, thou
dear little soul, go, in God's name ! '

At length an attempt was actually made to remove him
to Gotha, the necessary medical appliances being not pro-
curable at Schmalkald. On the 26th of the month the Erfurt
physician, Sturz, drove him thither, together with Bugen-
hagen, Spalatin, and Myconius, in one of the Elector's car-
riages. Another carriage followed them, with instruments
and a pan of charcoal, for warming cloths. On driving off,
Luther said to his friends about him, ' The Lord fill you with
His blessing, and with hatred of the Pope.'

The first day they could not venture farther than Tam-
bach, a few miles distant, the road over the mountains
being very rough. The jolting of the carriage caused him
intolerable torture. But it effected what the doctors could
not. The following night the pain was terminated, and the
feeling of relief and recovery made him full of joy and thank-
fulness. A messenger was sent at once, at two o'clock in the
morning, with the news to Schmalkald, and Luther himself
wrote a letter to his ' dearly-loved ' Melancthon. To hia

1 1

482 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

wife lie wrote saying, ' I have been a dead man, and had
commended you and the little ones to God and to our good
Lord Jesus. ... I grieved very much for your sakes.'
But God, he went on to say, had worked a miracle with
him ; he felt like one newly-born ; she must thank God,
therefore, and let the little ones thank their heavenly
Father, without whom they would assuredly have lost their
earthly one.

But on the 28th already, after his safe arrival at Gotha,
he suffered so severe a relapse that during that night he
thought, from his extreme weakness, that his end was near.
He then gave to Bugenhagen some last directions, which
the latter afterwards committed to writing, as the ' Confes-
sion and Last Testament of the Venerable Father.' Herein
Luther expressed his cheerful conviction that he had done
rightly in attacking the Papacy with the Word of God.
He begged his ' dearest Philip ' (Melancthon) and other
colleagues to forgive anything in which he might have
offended them. To his faithful Kate he sent words of
thanks and comfort, saying that now for the twelve years
of happiness which they had spent together, she must
accept this sorrow. Once more he sent greetings to the
preachers and burghers of Wittenberg. He begged his
Elector and the Landgrave not to be disturbed by the
charges made against them by the Papists of having
robbed the property of the Church, and recommended them
to trust to God in their labours on behalf of the gospel.

The next morning, however, he was again better and
stronger. Butzer, who in regard to unity of confession and
his relations with the Swiss had not been able to have any
further conversation with Luther at Schmalkald, had at once,
on receiving the good news from Tambach, gone straight to
Luther at Gotha, accompanied by the preacher Wolfhart
from Augsburg. Luther, notwithstanding his suffering, now
discussed with them this matter, so important in his eyes.
As an honest man, to whom nothing was so distasteful

FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 483

as ' dissimulation,' he earnestly warned them against all
* crooked ways.' The Swiss, in case he died, should be
referred to his letter to Meyer ; should God allow him to
live and become strong, he would send them a written
statement himself.

While, however, he was still at Gotha, the crisis of his
illness passed, and he was relieved entirely of the cause of
his suffering. The journey was continued cautiously and
slowly, and a good halt was made at Weimar. From Wit-
tenberg there came to nurse him a niece, who lived in his
house : probably Lene Kaufmann, the daughter of his
sister. To his wife he wrote from Tambach, telling her
that she need not accept the Elector's offer to drive her to
him, it being now unnecessary. On March 14 he arrived
again at his home. His recovery had made good progress,
though, as he wrote to Spalatin, even eight days afterwards
his legs could hardly support him.

Meanwhile the conference of the allies at Schmalkald
resulted in their deciding to decline the Papal invitation to
the Council. They informed the Emperor, in reply, that
the Council which the Pope had in view was something
very different to the one so long demanded by the German
Diets ; what they wanted was a free Council, and one' on
German, not Italian territory.

With regard to Luther's articles, which he had drawn
up in view of a Council, they saw no occasion to occupy
themselves with their consideration. To their official Con-
fession of Augsburg, which had formed among other things
the groundwork and charter of the Religious Peace,
and to the Apology, drawn up by Melancthon in reply
to the Catholic 'Refutation,' they desired, however, now
to add a protest against the authority and the Divine
right of the Papacy. Melancthon prepared it in the true
spirit of Luther, though in a calmer and more moderate
tone than was usual with his friend. The majority of the
theologians present at Schmalkald testified their assent to

n'2

484 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

Luther's articles by subscribing their names. Luther had
his statement printed the following year. The Emperor,
on account of the war with the Turks and the renewal of
hostilities with France, had no time to think of compelling
the allies to take part in a Council, and was quite content
that no Council should be held at all. Whether the Pope
himself, as Luther supposed, counted secretly on this
result, and was glad to see it happen, may remain a matter
of uncertainty.

At Schmalkald the seal was now set upon the Concord,
which had been concluded the previous year at Wittenberg,
and then submitted for ratification to the different German
princes and towns, the formula there adopted being now
signed by all the theologians present, and the agreement
of the princes to abide by it being duly announced.
Towards the Swiss, who declined to waive their objections
to the Wittenberg articles, Luther maintained firmly the
standpoint indicated in his letter to Meyer. Thus, in the
following December he wrote himself to those evangelical
centres in Switzerland from which Butzer had brought him
the communication to Gotha ; while the next year, in May
1538, he sent a friendly reply to a message from Bullinger,
and again in June he wrote once more to the Swiss, on
receiving an answer from them to his first letter. His
constant wish and entreaty was that they should at least
be friendly to, and expect the best of one another, until the
troubled waters were calmed. He fully acknowledged that
the Swiss were a very pious people, who earnestly wished
to do what was right and proper. He rejoiced at this,
and hoped that God, even if only a hedge obstructed,
would help in time to remove all errors. But he could not
ignore or disregard that on which no agreement had yet
been arrived at ; and he was right in supposing, and said
so openly to the Swiss, that upon their side, as well as
upon his own, there were many who looked upon unity not
only with displeasure but even with suspicion. He himself

FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 485

had constantly to explain misinterpretations of his doctrine,
and he did so with composure. He had never, he said,
taught that Christ, in order to be present at the Sacrament,
comes down from heaven ; but he left to Divine omnipo-
tence the manner in which His Body is verhy given to the
guests at His table. But he must guard himself, on the
other hand, against the notion that, with the attitude he
now adopted, he had renounced his former doctrine. And
with this doctrine he held firmly to the conception of a
Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament different to
and apart from that Presence for purely spiritual nourish-
ment on which the Swiss now insisted. When Bullinger
expressed his surprise that he should still talk of a dif-
ference in doctrine, he gave up offering any more explana-
tions on the subject ; and the Swiss, for their part, after
his second letter, made no further attempt to effect a more
perfect agreement. Luther's desire was to keep on terms
of peace and friendship with them, notwithstanding the
difference still notoriously existing between both parties.
On this very account he was loth to rake up the difference
again by further explanations. By acting thus he believed
he should best promote an ultimate understanding and
unity, which was still the object of his hopes.

So far, therefore, during the years immediately follow-
ing the death of Zwingh, success had attended the efforts
to heal the fatal division which separated from Luther and
the great Lutheran community those of evangelical sympa-
thies in Switzerland and the South Germans, who were
more or less subject to their influence, and which had
excited the minds on both sides with such violence and
passion. So far Luther himself had laboured to promote
this result with uprightness and zeal ; he had conquered
much suspicion once directed against himself, he had
sought means of peace ; he had restrained the disturbing
zeal of his own friends and followers, such as Amsdorf or
Osiander at Nuremberg.

486 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

We must not omit finally to mention, as an important
event of these years and a testimony to Luther's disposition
and sentiments, the friencjly relations now formed between
himself and the so-called Bohemian and Moravian Brethren=
We have already had occasion to notice, after the Leip-
zig disputation in 1519, and again, in particular, after
Luther's return from the Wartburg, an approach, which
promised much but was only transitory, between Luther
and the large and powerful brotherhood of the Bohemian
Utraquists, who, as admirers of Huss and advocates for
giving the cup to the laity, had freed themselves from the
dominion of Borne. Quietly and modestly, but with a far
more penetrating endeavour to restore the purity of Chris-
tian life, the small communities of the Moravian Brethren
had multiplied by the side of the Hussites, and had patiently
endured oppression and persecution. Luther afterwards
declared of them, how he had found to his astonishment — a
thing unheard of under the Papacy — that, discarding the
doctrines of men, they meditated day and night, to the
best of their ability, on the laws of God, and were well versed
in the Scriptures. It was principally, however, as Luther
himself seems to indicate, the commands of Scripture, in
the strict and faithful fulfilment of which they sought for
true Christianity — with special reference to the commands
of Jesus, as expressed by Him in particular in the Sermon
on the Mount, and to those precepts which they found in
their patterns, the oldest Apostolic communities — that en-
grossed their attention. With strict discipline, in con-
formity with these commands, they sought to order and
sanctify their congregational life. But of Luther's doctrine
of salvation, announced by him mainly on the testimony
of St. Paul, or of the doctrine of justification by faith
alone, they had as yet no knowledge. They taught of the
righteousness to which Christians should attain, as did
Augustine and the pious, practical theologians of the
middle ages. Henee they were wanting also in freedom

FURTHER RECONCILIATION. 487

in their conception of moral life, and of those worldly
duties and blessings to which, according to Luther, the
Christian spirit rose by the power of faith. They
shunned rather all worldly business in a manner that
caused Luther to ascribe to them a certain monastic
character. Their priests lived, like Catholics, in celibacy.
Another peculiarity of their teaching was, that in striving
after a more spiritual conception of life, and under the
influence of the writings of the great Englishman Wicliffe,
which were largely disseminated among them, they re-
pudiated the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, nor
would even allow such a Presence of Christ's Body as was
insisted on by Luther. They maintained simply a sacra-
mental, spiritual, effectual presence of Christ, and dis-
tinguished from it a substantial Presence, which His Body,
they declared, had in heaven alone.

With these, too, as with the Utraquists, Luther became
more closely acquainted soon after his return from the
Wartburg. The evangelical preacher, Paul Speratus, who
was then temporarily working in Moravia, wrote to him
about these zealous friends of the gospel, among whom,
however, he found much that was objectionable, especially
their doctrine of the Sacrament. They themselves sent
Luther messages, letters, and writings. Luther, who, in
addition to the Catholic theory, had also to combat doubts
as to the Beal Presence of Christ's Body at the Sacra-
ment, turned in 1523, in a treatise ' On the Adoration of
the Sacrament, &c.,' to oppose the declarations of the
Brethren on this subject, and then proceeded to draw their
attention to other points on which he was unable to agree
with them, in the mildest form and with warm acknowledg-
ments of their good qualities, such as, in particular, their
strict requirements of Christian moral conduct, which in
his own circle he could not possibly expect to see as yet ful-
filled. They and Lucas, their elder, however, took umbrage

488 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

at his remarks ; Lucas published a reply, whereupon Luthei
quietly left them to go their own way.

While Butzer now was prosecuting with success his
attempts at union, the Brethren renewed their overtures to
Luther. They offered him fresh explanations about the
doctrines in dispute, and these explanations he was content
to treat as consistent with the truth which he himself
maintained, though they differed even from his own actual
statements, not only in form but in substance. For example,
they distinguished between the Presence of Christ's Body
in the Sacrament and His existence in heaven, by describing
only the latter as a Bodily existence. Practically, the
theory of the Brethren, which, however, was by no means
cleaily defined, agreed most with that represented afterwards
by Calvin But Luther saw in it nothing more that was
essential, such as would necessitate further controversy, or
deter him from friendly intercourse with these pious-minded
people. At their desire he published two of their statements
of belief in 1533 and 1538 with prefaces from his own pen.
In these prefaces he dwelt particularly on the striking differ-
ences, as regards Church usages and regulations, between
their congregations and his own. But these differences, he
said, ought in no way to prevent their fellowship ; a dif-
ference of usages had always existed among Christian
Churches, and with the difference of times and circum-
stances, was unavoidable. Nor did he withhold a certain
sanction and approbation of the dignity with which the
Brethren continued to invest the state of celibacy, while
refusing, however, to give that sanction the force of a law.
Among the Brethren their gifted and energetic elder
John Augusta laboured to promote an alliance with Luther
and the German Pieformation. He repeatedly appeared
(and again in 1540) in person at Wittenberg.

Thus on all sides, wherever the Evangelical word pre«
vailed, Luther saw the bonds of union being firmly tied.

439

CHAPTER IV.

OTHER LABOURS AND TRANSACTIONS, 1535-39. — ARCHBISHOP
ALBERT AND SCHONITZ. AGRICOLA.

Amidst these important and general affairs of the Church,
bringing daily fresh labours and fresh anxieties for Luther —
labours, however, which, in spite of his bodily sufferings, he
undertook with his old accustomed energy — his strength, as
in previous years we have observed with reference to his
preaching, now no longer sufficed as before for the regular-
work of his calling. In his official duties at the university
the Elector himself, anxiously concerned as he was for its
progress, would have spared him as much as possible. For
these he arranged, in 1536, an ample stipend. In his
announcement of this step he solemnly declared : ' The
merciful God has plenteously and graciously vouchsafed to
let His holy, redeeming Word, through the teaching of the
reverend and most learned, our beloved and good Martin
Luther, doctor of Holy Scripture, be made known to all
men in these latter days of the world with true Christian
understanding, for their comfort and salvation, for which
we give Him praise and thanks for ever ; and has made
known also, in addition to other arts, the Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages, through the conspicuous and rare ability
and industry of the learned Philip Melancthon, for the
furtherance of the right and Christian comprehension of
Holy Scripture.' To each of these two men he now gave
a hundred gulden as an addition to his salary as professor,
which in Luther's case had hitherto amounted to two
hundred gulden. At the same time he released Luther

49o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

from the obligation of lecturing, and, indeed, from all his
other duties at the university.

Luther began, however, this year a new and important
course of lectures — the exposition of the Book of Genesis,
which, according to his wont, he illustrated with a copious
and valuable commentary on the chief points of Christian
doctrine and Christian life. They progressed, however, but
slowly and with many interruptions ; sometimes a whole
year was occupied with only a few chapters. The work was
not completed until 1545. They were the last lectures he
delivered.

In the office of preacher, which he continued to fill
voluntarily and without emolument, he undertook again,
after he had returned from Schmalkald, and had gained
fresh strength and, at least, a temporary recovery from his
recent illness, labours at once beyond and more arduous than
his ordinary duties. He resumed, in short, the duties of
Bugenhagen, who was given leave of absence till 1539 to
visit Denmark, for the purpose of organising there, under the
new king Christian III., the new Evangelical Church. He
preached regularly on week-days, in addition to his Sunday
sermons; continuing his discourses, as Bugenhagen had
done, though with many interruptions, on the Gospels of
St. Matthew and St. John. The chancellor Briick wrote to
the Elector from Wittenberg on August 27 : ' Doctor Martin
preaches in the parish church thrice a week ; and such
mightily good* sermons are they, that it seem3 to me, as
everyone is saying, there has never been such powerful
preaching here before. He points out in particular the errors
of the Popedom, and multitudes come to hear him. He
closes his sermons with a prayer against the Pope, his
Cardinals and Bishops, and for our Emperor, that God may
give him victory and deliver him from the Popedom.'

Among his literary labours he again took in hand in 1539
his German translation of the Bible — the most important
work, in its way, of all his life — and persevered with intense

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 491

and unremitting industry, in order to revise it thoroughly
for a new edition, which was published at the end of two
years. For this work he assembled around him a circle of
learned colleagues, whose assistance he succeeded in obtain-
ing and whom he regularly consulted. These were Melanc-
thon, Jonas, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, Matthew Aurogallus,
professor of Hebrew, and afterwards the chaplain Borer,
who attended to the corrections. From outside also some
joined them, such as Ziegler, the Leipzig theologian, a man
learned in Hebrew. Luther's younger friend Mathesius,
who had been Luther's guest in 1540, relates of these meet-
ings how ' Doctor Luther came to them with his old Bible in
Latin and his new one in German, and besides these he
had always the Hebrew text with him. Philip (Melancthon)
brought with him the Greek text, Dr. Kreuziger (Cruciger)
besides the Hebrew, the Chaldaic Bible (the translation
or paraphrase in use among the ancient Jews) ; the pro-
fessors had with them their Eabbis (the Babbinical
writings of the Old Testament). Each one had previously
armed himself with a knowledge of the text, and compared
the Greek and Latin with the Jewish version. The president
then propounded a text, and let the opinions go round ; —
speeches of wondrous truth and beauty are said to have
been made at these sittings.'

In other respects Luther's literary activity was chiefly
devoted to the great questions remaining to be dealt with
at a Council. In 1539, the year after his publication of the
Schmalkaldic Articles, appeared a larger treatise from his
pen ' On Councils and Churches,' one of the most exhaus-
tive of his writings, and important to us as showing how
firmly and confidently his idea of the Christian Church, as
a community of the faithful, was maintained amidst all the
practical difficulties which events prepared. He complains
of the substitution of the blind, unmeaning word ' Church '
— and that even in the Catechism for the young — for the
Greek word in the New Testament ' Ecclesia,' as the name

49? LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

of the community or assembly of Christian people. Much
misery, he said, had crept in under that word Church, from
its being understood as consisting of the Pope and the
bishops, priests, and monks. The Christian Church "was
simply the mass of jrious Christian people, who believed in
Christ and were endowed with the Holy Spirit, Who daily
sanctified them by the forgiveness of sins, and by absolving
and purifying them therefrom.

Of Luther's love for his German mother-language, and
of the services he rendered it, so conspicuously shown by
these his writings, and especially by his persevering indus-
try in his translation of the Bible, we are further reminded
by a request he made in a letter of March 1535, to his
friend Wenzeslaus Link at Nuremberg. He suddenly in
that letter breaks off from the Latin — which was still the
customary language of correspondence between theologians
— and continues in German, with the words, ' I will speak
German, my dear Herr Wenzel,' and then begs his friend
to make his servant collect for him all the German pictures,
rhymes, books, and ballads that had recently been pub-
lished at Nuremberg, as he wished to familiarise himself
more with the genuine language of the people. Luther
himself made a goodly collection of German proverbs. His
original manuscript which contained them was inherited
by a German family, but unfortunately it was bought
about twenty years ago in England. There was published
also at Wittenberg, in 1537, a small anonymous book on
German names, written (unquestionably by Luther) in
Latin, and therefore intended for students. It contains, it
is true, many strange mistakes, but it is, nevertheless, a
proof of the interest he took in such studies, and is interest-
ing as a maiden effort in this field of national learning.

In the regular government and legal administration of
his Saxon Church, Luther did not occupy any post of office.
When in 1539 a Consistory was established at Wittenberg
for the Electoral district, and afterwards, indeed, for the

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 493

regulation of marriage and discipline, he did not become a
member ; lie was certainly never called upon or qualified
to take part in the exercise of such a jurisdiction. And
yet this also was done with his concurrence, and in cases
of difficulty he was resorted to for his advice. All Church
questions of public interest continued, with this exception, to
occupy his independent and influential discussion. And
even the moral evils on the domain of civil, municipal and
social life, to which Luther at the beginning of the Reforma-
tion appeared desirous of extending his preaching of reform,
so far, at least, as that preaching represented a general call
and exhortation, but which he afterwards seemed to discard
altogether as something foreign to his mission, never
wholly faded from his purview, or ceased to enlist his
active interest. He wrote again in 1539 against usury,
much as he had written at an earlier period, remarking to
his friends that his book would prick the consciences of
petty usurers, but that the big swindlers would only laugh
at him in their sleeves. And in publishing his Schmal-
kaldic Articles he briefly refers again in his preface to the
' countless matters of importance ' which a genuine Chris-
tian Council would have to mend in the temporal condition
of mankind — such as the disunion of princes and states, the
usury and avarice, which had spread like a deluge and had
become the law, and the sins of unchastity, gluttony,
gambling, vanity in dress, disobedience on the part of
subjects, servants, and workmen of all trades ; as also the
removal of peasants, &c. Nor at the same time was he
less prompt to interfere on behalf of individuals who were
suffering from want and injustice, either by his humble in-
tercession with their lords, or with the sharp sword of his
denunciation.

It was Luther's indignation and zeal on such an occa-
sion that caused now his irremediable rupture with the
Archbishop, Cardinal Albert, and induced him to attack
that magnate as recklessly as he did ; for the Cardinal had

494 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTAXTS.

hitherto been always disposed to treat him with a cer
tain respect ; and Luther, on his side, had refrained at
least from any open exhibition of hostility. The imme-
diate cause of this rupture was a judicial murder, perpe-
trated against one John Schonitz (or Schanz) of Halle, on
the river Saale. This man had for years had the charge,
as the confidential servant of the Archbishop, of the public
and even the private funds which his master required for
his stately palaces, his luxury, and his sensual enjoyments,
refined or coarse, legitimate or illegitimate ; and had ac-
tually lent him large sums. The Estates of the Arch-
bishopric complained of the demands made on them for
money, and rightly suspected that the funds supplied were
improperly and dishonestly misappropriated. Schonitz
grew alarmed on account of the clandestine * practices '
which he was carrying on for his master. The latter, how-
ever, assured him of his protection. But when the Estates
refused to grant any more subsidies until a proper account
was laid before them, he basely sacrificed his servant in
order to extricate himself from his embarrassment. For
deceptions alleged to have been practised against himself, he
had Schonitz arrested, and confined, in September 15*34, in
the Castle of Giebichenstein. In vain Schonitz demanded a
public trial by impartial judges ; in vain did the Imperial
Court of Justice give judgment in his favour. A second
judgment of the court was answered by Albert's directing
the prisoner, who was a citizen of Halle and sprung from
an old local family, to be tried on June 21, 1535, at
Giebichenstein, by a peasant tribunal hastily summoned
from the surrounding villages, for the trial merely, as the
rumour ran in Halle, of a horse-stealer. The unhappy
prisoner was allowed no regular defence, and no counsel.
An admission of guilt was extorted from him by the rack,
and he was summarily sentenced to death. Time was only
allowed him to say to the bystanders that he confessed
himself a sinner in the sight of God, but that he had not

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 495

deserved this fate. He was quickly strung up on the
gallows, where his corpse remained hanging till the wind
blew it down in February 1537. Albert took possession of
his property. And this was done by the supreme prince
of the Eoman Church in Germany, who played the part of
a modern Maecenas with regard to art and science.

Whilst now the justices of the town of Halle were pro-
testing against this treatment of their fellow-townsman to the
Archbishop, who turned a deaf ear to their remonstrance,
and Antony, the brother of the murdered man, exerted
himself in vain to vindicate his honour and the rights of
their family, Luther was drawn into the affair by the fact
that one of his guests, Ludwig Eabe, was threatened with
punishment by Albert, for expressions he let fall soon after
the deed was committed. Luther thereupon wrote several
times to Albert himself, and told him openly he was a
murderer, and, for his squandering of Church property,
deserved a gallows ten times higher than the Castle of
Giebichenstein. He was restrained, however, from taking
further steps by the Elector of Brandenburg and other of
Albert's influential relatives, who appealed to John Frederick
on his behalf, whilst Albert sought to make a cheap com-
pensation to the family of the murdered man, or at least
pretended to do so.

When, however, a young Humanist poetaster at Witten-
berg, named Lemnius — properly Lemchen — actually glori-
fied the Archbishop in verse, or, as Luther put it, ' made a
saint of the devil,' and at the same time vilified some men
and women at Wittenberg, Luther read aloud from the
pulpit, in 1538, a short indictment, couched in the plainest
possible terms, against the shameless libeller, as also against
the Archbishop whom he glorified ; and this indictment
soon appeared in print. And now he no longer refrained
from taking up the cause of Schonitz in a pamphlet of
some length. When the Duke of Prussia endeavoured once
more in a friendly way to dissuade him from his purpose,

496 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

for the honour of the house of Brandenburg, he replied,
' Wicked sons have sprung from the noble race of David,
and princes ought not to disgrace themselves by unprincely
vices.' In the pamphlet to his opening he declared that
a stone was lying upon his heart which was called ' De-
liver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are
ready to be slain' (Prov. xxiv. 11). He denounced the
contempt and denial of justice of which the Archbishop
was guilty, and at the same time boldly exposed the real-
objects of those private expenses which the Archbishop,
together with his servant, had incurred, and of which the
latter was naturally unable to give an account — least of
all, those that ministered to his carnal appetites, such as
his establishment at Morizburg in Halle. He himself,
says Luther, does not judge the Cardinal ; he is simply
the bearer of the sentence pronounced by the great Judge
in heaven. To those who might perhaps have taken
exception to his words he says, ' I sit here at Wittenberg,
and ask my most gracious lord the Elector for no further
favour or protection than what is given to all alike.'
Albert found it more prudent to keep silent.

But what disturbed and grieved Luther more than
anything else during this, the closing chapter of his life,
was the bitter experience he had yet to make in his own
religious community, nay, amidst his most intimate com-
panions and friends.

The way of life — in other words, the way of saving
faith— was now rediscovered and clearly brought to light ;
and, as Luther said, a truly moral life should be the con-
sequence. And great pains were taken to stamp this new
truth clearly and distinctly on doctrine, and to guard
against new errors and perversions. Differences, however,
now arose among those who had hitherto worked so loyally
together for the establishment of the faith— a beginning
of those doctrinal disputes which after Luther's death be-
came so disastrous to his Church. Again and again Luther

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA.

497

bitterly complained of the moral wrongs and scandals
which proved that the faith, however widely its confession
had spread through Germany, was far from living in its
purity and strength in the hearts of men, and bearing the
expected fruit. Only his own conviction, his own faith was
never shaken by this result. It must needs be, as Christ
Himself had said, that offences must come ; and, in the
words of St. Paul (1 Cor. xi. 19), ' there must be also
heresies,' and false teachers and deceivers must arise.

We have seen above how cordially Luther welcomed
Agricola back at Wittenberg after throwing up his appoint-
ment at Eisleben. He obtained
for him from the Elector
in 1537 an ample salary, to
enable him to fill the long-
coveted office of teacher at the
university, and be a preacher
as well. It soon became
known that Agricola per-
sisted in maintaining that
doctrine of repentance in
defence of which he had at-
tacked Melancthon at the first
visitation of churches in the
Saxon Electorate. He had
been accused of this at Eis-
leben, and Count Albert of Mansfeld, whose service he
had quitted with rudeness and discontent, denounced
him as a restless and dangerous fellow. And now at Wit-
tenberg also Agricola had some sermons printed, and some
theses circulated, embodying a statement of his peculiar
doctrine. Luther considered it his duty to refute these,
and he did so from the pulpit, but without naming their
author.

The proclamation of God's law, so Agricola now taught,
was no necessary part of Christianity, as such, nor of the

K K

Fig. 44. — Agricola. (From a mi-
niature portrait by Cranach, in
the University Album at Witten-
berg, 1531.)

498 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

way of salvation prepared and revealed by Christ. The
Gospel of the Son of God, our Saviour, this alone should
be proclaimed, and operate in touching the hearts of men
and exposing the true character of their sins as sin-
fulness against the Son of God. In this way he sought
to give full effect to the fundamental evangelical doctrine,
that the grace of God alone had power to save through the
joyful message of Christ. The personal vanity, however,
which was the chief weakness of this gifted, intellectual, and
fairly eloquent man, and which was now increased by the
dissatisfaction it had caused at Eisleben, displayed itself
further in the assertion of his eccentricities of dogma.
Moreover, he was far from clear in his first principles, and
while maintaining his tenets he was unwilling to stake too
much on his own account, and yet refused actually to
abandon them.

He came at first to an understanding with Luther by
offering an explanation which the latter deemed satisfactory,
but he then proceeded to revert to his peculiar tenets in a
new publication. Luther now launched a sharp reply
against these antinomian theses, as well as against others,
which went much further, and whose origin is unknown.
He found wanting in Agricola that earnest moral apprecia-
tion of the law, and of the moral demands made of us by
God, whereby the heart of the sinner, as he himself had
experienced, must first be bruised and broken, and thus
opened to receive the word of grace, before that word can
truly renew, revive, and sanctify it. But together with Agri-
cola's tenets he then placed the others, betraying an equally
frivolous estimate of the real nature of those demands
and of the duties they entailed, as evidence of one tendency
and one character, since Agricola, indeed, taught like them,
that the good willed by God in His Commandments was ful-
filled in Christians by the simple fact of their belief in Christ,
and as the fruit of His word of grace. Thus it came about
that this tendency which Luther found represented in
Agricola, stood out before him in all its compass and

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 499

with its extremest and most alarming consequences, and
called forth the boldest exercise of his zeal. It grieved him
sorely, nevertheless, to have to enter into this dispute with
his old friend. ' God knows,' he said, ' what trials this
business has prepared for me ; I shall have died of sheer
anxiety before I have brought my theses against him
(Agricola) to the light.'

At the instance, however, of the Elector, who valued
Agricola, another reconciliation was brought about. Agricola
humbled himself ; he even authorised his great opponent
to draw up a retractation in his name, and Luther did this
in a manner very damaging to Agricola, in a letter to his
former colleague and opponent at Eisleben, Caspar Guttel.
Agricola thereupon received a place in the newly- formed
consistory. But even now he could not refrain from fresh
utterances which betrayed his old opinions. Luther's
confidence in him was thus destroyed for ever : he spoke
with indignation, pain, and scorn of ' Grikel (Agricola), the
false man.' The latter at length complained to the Elector
against Luther for having unjustly aspersed him. The
Elector testified to him his displeasure ; Luther gave a sharp
answer to the charge, and his prince made further inquiries
into the matter of complaint. Agricola finally snatched at
a means of escape offered by his summons to Berlin,
whither he had been called as a preacher of distinction by
the Elector Joachim II., who was a convert to the Reforma-
tion. In August 1540 he left Wittenberg. He sent thither
from Berlin another and fully satisfactory retractation in
order to retain his official appointment. But Luther's
friendship with him was broken for ever.

In another quarter also Melancthon had been charged
wTith deviating in certain statements from the path of right
doctrine.

We know already how his anxiety about the dangers
caused by the separation from the great Catholic Church
seemed to tempt him to indulge in questionable concessions,

E E2

500 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

and how it was Luther himself, with a disposition so dif-
ferent to Melancthon's, who nevertheless held firmly to
his trust in his friend and fellow-labourer, particularly dur-
ing the Diet of Augsburg. And, indeed, subsequent events
brought this tendency to concession more fully into notice.
Certain peculiarities now asserted themselves in Melanc-
thon's independent opinions, with regard both to theology
and practical life, which distinguished his mode of teaching
from that of Luther. He who, again and again, in the
Augsburg Confession and the Apology, as also in the system
of evangelical theology which in his ' Loci Communes ' he
was the first to elaborate, had expounded with full and
active conviction the fundamental evangelical truth of a
justifying and saving Faith, was anxious also — more so,
even, than many strict confessors of that doctrine — to have
the whole field of moral improvement and the fruits of
morality which were necessary to preserve that faith, esti-
mated at their proper value. And further, with respect to
God's will and the operation of His grace, whereby alone the
sinner could obtain inward conversion and faith, he wished
to make this depend entirely on man's own will and choice,
so that the blame might not appear to lie with God if the
call to salvation remained fruitless, and a temptation
thereby be offered to many to indulge in carelessness or
despondency. In addition to this5 he differed unmistak-
ably from Luther in his doctrine of the Sacrament. For,
though it was he who at Augsburg in 1530 had flatly re-
jected the Zwinglians, still his historical researches im-
pressed him with the belief, that, in reality, as indeed the
Zwinglians maintained, not Augustine himself, among
the ancients, had taught the Real Bodily Presence after
the manner of Luther, or even of Roman Catholicism ; and
his own theological opinion induced him at least to satisfy
himself with more or less obscure propositions about the
communion of the Saviour Who died for us with the guests
at His table, without any fixed or clear declarations about

ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND AGRICOLA. 501

the substantiality of the Body. This appears, for instance,
in his 'Loci Communes,' although in the formula of the
Wittenberg Concord of 1536 he went farther, together with
Luther.

On the first point above-mentioned, a priest named
Cordatus, a strict adherent of Luther, had raised a protest
against him in 1536. But the opponent whom Melancthon
chiefly feared in this respect was the theologian Amsdorf,
who was not only an old familiar friend of Luther, but the
especial guardian, both then and still more after Luther's
death, of Lutheran orthodoxy. But Luther himself was
anxious to avoid, even in this matter, any rupture or discord
with Melancthon. He took great pains to reconcile the
difference, and knew also how to keep silence, though with-
out deviating from his own strict standpoint, or being able to
overlook the peculiarity of his friend's teaching, conspicu-
ously apparent as it was in the new edition of his book.

We are reminded by this, moreover, how Luther, during
his illness at Schmalkald in 1537, made no secret of his
fear of a division breaking out at Wittenberg after his
death.

502 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

CHAPTEK V.

LUTHER AND THE PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES
OF PROTESTANTISM. 1538-1541.

In the great affairs of the Church, amid the threats of his
enemies and in all his dealings with them, Luther continued
from day to day to trust quietly in God, as the Guider
of events, Who suffers none to forestall His designs, and
puts to shame and rebuke the inventions of man. His
hope of external peace had hitherto been fulfilled beyond
all expectation. And it had been permitted him to see the
Eeformation gain strength and make further progress in
the German Empire. Indeed, it seemed possible that a
union might be effected with those Catholics who had been
impressed with the evangelical doctrine of salvation. These
were results accomplished by the inward power of God's
Word, as hitherto preached to the people, under a Divine
and marvellously favourable dispensation of outer relations
and events — fruits as unexpected as they were gratifying
to Luther. Great plans or projects of his own, however,
were still far from his thoughts ; nor even did the details
of this historical development demand such activity on his
part as he had shown in the earlier years of the movement.
And yet there was no lack of discord, difficulty, and trouble
within the pale of the new Church and amongst its members ;
prospects of further, and possibly much more serious dan-
gers to be encountered ; thoughts of sadness and disquie-
tude to vex the soul of the Reformer, now aged, suffering,
and weary. The goal of his hopes had ever been, and still
remained, not indeed a victory to be gradually achieved

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 503

for his cause, perhaps even in his own lifetime, by the
course of ecclesiastical and political changes and events,
but the end which the Lord Himself, according to His
promises, would make of the whole wicked world, and the
Hereafter whither he was ever waiting to be summoned.

Since the Schmalkaldic allies had rejected the Emperor
with his invitation to a Council, the Eomish zealots might
well hope that Charles at length would prepare to use
force against them. He was not yet able to bring his
quarrel with King Francis to a final termination ; but,
nevertheless, he concluded a truce with him in 1538 for ten
years, while at the same time his vice-chancellor Held
contrived to effect a union of Roman Catholic princes in
Germany in opposition to the Schmalkaldic League. This
union was joined, in addition to Austria, Bavaria, and
George of Saxony, by Duke Henry of Brunswick, the bitter
enemy of the Landgrave Philip. Already in the spring of
that year people at Wittenberg talked of operations on a
large scale ostensibly directed against the Turks, but in
reality against the Protestants. Or at least it was feared
that the imperial army, in the event . of its defeating the
Turks, might, as Luther expressed it, turn their spears
against the Evangelical party. In this respect Luther had
no fears ; he did not believe in a victory over the Turks,
and, even in that case, his opinion was that the imperial
troops would no more submit to be made the instruments of
such a policy than they had done some years before, after their
victory at Vienna. Most earnestly he exhorted the Elector,
for his part at least, to do his duty again in the war against
the Turks, for the sake of his Fatherland and the poor op-
pressed people. On the other hand, the right of the Protestant
States to resist the Emperor, if it came to a war of religion,
was one which he now asserted without scruple or hesita-
tion. The Emperor, he said, in such a war would not be
Emperor at all, but merely a soldier of the Pope. He
appealed to the fact that once among the people of Israel

504 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

pious and godly men had risen up against their sovereign ;
and the German princes had additional rights over their
Emperor, by virtue of their constitution. Finally, he rea-
soned from the law of nature itself, that a father was
bound to protect his wife and children from open murder ;
and he likened the Emperor, who usurped a power noto-
riously illegal, to a murderer. For the rest, he declared, in a
publication exhorting the Evangelical clergy to pray for
peace, that as to whether the Papists chose to carry out
their designs or not he was perfectly indifferent, in case
God did not will to work a miracle. His only fear was lest
a war might arise, if they did so, which would never end,
and would be the total ruin of Germany.

But the Emperor was less zealous and more cautious
than his vice-chancellor. He sent another representative
to Germany, with instructions to prevent an outbreak of
hostilities. This envoy, in the course of some negotiations
conducted at Frankfort in April 1539, agreed to an under-
standing by which the ecclesiastical law-suits hitherto
instituted in the Imperial Chamber against the Protestants
were suspended, and a number of chosen theologians of
piety and laymen were to ' arrange a praiseworthy union of
Christians' at an assembly of the German Estates.

On April 17, in the midst of these transactions, Duke
George of Saxony died after a short illness. His country
passed to his brother Henry, who in his own smaller
territory of Freiburg had for some years, much to the grief
of George, established the Evangelical form of worship, and
given shelter to the heretics banished by his brother. The
latter had left no male issue to succeed him. He had lost
two sons in boyhood ; and his son John, who held the same
opinions as himself, had died two years ago, when quite a
young man, without leaving any children. His last re-
maining son Frederick was of weak intellect, but had
nevertheless been married after his brother's death, and
died a few weeks later. He was soon followed by his

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 505

unhappy father and sovereign. Luther said of him that
he had gone to everlasting fire, though he would have
wished him life and conversion. To us his end appears
the more tragic because we cannot but acknowledge the
honest zeal with which, from his own point of view, he
endeavoured to serve God, and would willingly even have
effected a reform in the Church; whilst, in spite of all
his severity against heretics, he never suffered himself
to be hurried into deeds of coarse violence and cruelty.
There are extant prayers and religious discourses, composed
and written down by himself. He read the Bible, and
expressed a wish, when Luther's translation appeared, that
1 the monk would put the whole Bible into German, and
then go about his business.'

Thus the old and constantly revived quarrel between
Luther and the Duke came at length to an end. The
Ee formation was immediately introduced throughout the
duchy by the appointment of Evangelical clergy, by changes
in public worship, and by a visitation of churches after the
example of the one in Electoral Saxony. When Henry
was solemnly acknowledged sovereign at Leipzig, he invited
Luther and Jonas to be present. On the afternoon of
Whitsunday, May 24, 1539, Luther preached a sermon in
the court chapel of that Castle of Pleissenburg, where he
had once disputed before George with Eck, and on the
following afternoon he preached in one of the churches of
the town, not venturing to do so in the morning on account
of his weak state of health. He now proclaimed aloud, in
his sermon on the Gospel for Whitsunday, that the Church
of Christ was not there, where men were madly crying
1 Church ! Church ! ' without the Word of God, nor was it
with the Pope, the cardinals, and the bishops ; but there,
and there only, where Christ was loved and His Word was
kept, and where accordingly He dwelt in the souls of men.
He refrained from any special reference to the state of
things hitherto existing at Leipzig and in the duchy, or to

506 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

the change brought about by God. But we call to mind
the words he had spoken in 1532, ' Who knows what God
will do before ten years are over ? ' Very soon, indeed, the
magnates of the Saxon court and the nobility, though
accepting the reformed faith of their new sovereign, gave
occasion to Luther for bitter complaints of their rapacity,
their indifference to religion, and their improper and
tyrannical usurpations on the territory of the Church.

In addition to the Saxon duchy, the Electorate of
Brandenburg was also about to go over to Protestantism.
The Elector Joachim I. adhered so strictly to the ancient
Church, that his wife Elizabeth, who was evangelically in-
clined, had fled to Saxony, where she became an intimate
friend of Luther's household. But on his death in 1535,
his younger son John, together with his territory, the ' Neu-
rnark,' joined at once the Schmalkaldic allies. And now,
after longer consideration, his elder brother also, Joachim II.
— a man of quieter disposition and more attached to ancient
ways — took the decisive step, after an agreement with his
Estates and the territorial bishop, Jagow. On November 1,
1539, he received from the latter publicly the Sacrament in
both kinds.

Under these circumstances the Emperor resolved to give
effect to the essential part of the Frankfort agreement.
He summoned a meeting at Spire ' for the purpose of so
arranging matters that the wearisome dissension in religion
might be reconciled in a Christian manner.' In consequence
of a pestilence which appeared at Spire, the assembly was
removed to Hagenau. Here it was actually held in June
1540.

Meanwhile, the most vigorous champion of Protestantism,
the Landgrave Philip, took a step which was calculated to
damage the position of the Evangelical Church and to
embarrass its adherents more than anything which their
enemies could possibly attempt. Philip, in his youth (1523)
had taken to wife a daughter of Duke George of Saxony,

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 507

but soon repented of his ill-considered resolve, on the
ground that she was of an unamiable disposition and was
afflicted with bodily infirmities, and accordingly proceeded
to look elsewhere for a mistress, after the fashion only too
common at that time with emperors and princes, but
scarcely commented upon in their case. The earnest
remonstrances made to him on religious grounds against
this step had the effect of causing him certain prickings
of conscience ; he had not ventured on that account, as he
now complained, to present himself at the Lord's table,
with one single exception, since the Peasants' War. But
his conscience was not strong enough to make him give up
his evil ways. At last the Bible, which he read indus-
triously, seemed to him to provide a means of outlet from his
difficulty, He sheltered himself, as the Anabaptist fanatics
had done before him, behind the Old Testament precedent
of Abraham and other godly men, to whom it had been per-
mitted to have more than one wife, and pleaded, moreover,
that the New Testament contained no prohibition of poly-
gamy. With all the energy and stubbornness of his nature,
he fastened on these notions and clung to them, when, at the
house of his sister, the Duchess Elizabeth, at Bochlitz, he
chanced to meet and fall in love with a lady named Margaret
von der Saal. She refused to be his except by marriage. Her
mother even demanded of him that Luther, Butzer, and
Melancthon, or at least two of them, together with an
envoy of the Elector and the Duke of Saxony, should be
present as witnesses at the marriage. Philip himself found
the consent of these divines and of his most distinguished
ally, John Frederick, indispensable. He succeeded first of
all in gaining over the versatile Butzer, and sent him in
December 1539, on this errand, to Wittenberg.

He appealed to the strait that he was in, no longer
able with a good conscience to go to war or to punish
crime, and also to the testimony of Scripture, adding,
very truly, that the Emperor and the world were

5j8 LUTHER AXD THE PROTESTANTS.

quite willing to permit both him and anyone else to live in
open immorality. Thus, he said, they were forbidding
what God allowed, and winking at what He prohibited.
In other respects, indeed, a double marriage was not a thing
unheard of even by the Christendom of those days. It
was said, for instance, of the Christian Emperor of Koine,
Yalentinian II., to whose case Philip himself appealed, that
he had been permitted to contract a marriage of that kind.
To the Pope was ascribed the power to grant the necessary
dispensation.

On December 10 Butzer brought back to the Landgrave
from Wittenberg an opinion of Luther and Melancthon.
They told him in decided terms that it was in accordance
with creation itself, and recognised as such by Jesus, ' that
a man was not to have more than one wife ; ' and they, the
preachers of God's Word, were commanded to regulate
marriage and all human things ' in accordance with their
original and Divine institution, and to adhere thereto as
closely as possible, while at the same time avoiding to their
utmost all cause of pain or annoyance.' They urgently
exhorted him not to regard incontinence, as did the world,
in the light of a trifling offence, and represented to him
plainly that if he refused to resist his evil inclinations, he
would not mend matters by taking a second wife. But
with all this exhortation and warning, they confessed them-
selves bound to admit that ' what was allowed in respect of
marriage by the law of Moses was not actually forbidden in
the gospel ; ' thereby maintaining, in point of fact, that an
original ordinance in the Church must be adhered to as the
rule, but nevertheless admitting the possibility of a dispensa-
tion under very strong and exceptional circumstances. They
did not say that such a dispensation was applicable to the
case of Philip ; they only wished him earnestly to reconsider
the matter with his own conscience. In the event, however,
of his keeping to his resolve, they would not refuse him the
benefit of a dispensation, and only required that the matter

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 509

should be kept private, on account of the scandal and
possible abuse it would occasion if generally known.

Luther himself abandoned afterwards the conclusions
he drew from the Old Testament in this respect, and, as a
consequence, rejected the admissibility of a double mar-
riage for Christians. Friends of the evangelical and
Lutheran belief can only lament the decision he pro-
nounced in this matter. With that belief itself it has
nothing whatever to do. Instead of drawing his conclu-
sions from the moral aspect of marriage, as amply attested
by the spirit of the New Testament, though not indeed
exactly expressed, Luther on this occasion clung to the
letter, and failed, of course, to find any written declaration
on the point. At the same time he mistook, in common
with all the theologians of his time, the difference, in point of
matured morality and knowledge, between the New Cove-
nant and the standpoint of the Old, which was that also
of his best adherents.

The simple Christian common sense of the Elector
John Frederick, and his practical view of the position,
preserved him this time from the error into which the
theologians had fallen. He lamented that they should
have given an answer, and would have nothing to do with
the business.

Philip, however, rejoiced at the decision, and obtained,
moreover, his wife's consent to take a second one.

In the following March the Protestants held another
conference at Schmalkald, with a view of coming to an
agreement as to their conduct in the attempts at unity in
the Church. The Elector summoned Melancthon thither,
but excused Luther, at his own request. Philip then in-
vited the former, under some pretext or other, to the neigh-
bouring Castle of Rothenburg on the Fulda. Arrived there,
he was obliged to be a witness with Butzer, on March 4,
1540, to the marriage of the Landgrave with Margaret.
Philip thanked Luther some weeks after for the ' remedy '

5io LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

allowed him, without which he should have become ' quite
desperate.' He had kept the name of his second wife a
secret from the Wittenbergers ; he now told Luther that
she was a virtuous maiden, a relative of Luther's own
wife, and that he rejoiced to have honourably become his
kinsman.

Very soon, however, the news of this unheard of event
got wind. The Evangelicals were not less scandalised
than their enemies, who in other respects were glad to
see the mischief. The first to demand an explanation was
the Ducal Court of Saxony, the Duke being so nearly
related to Philip's first wife, and on the eve of a quarrel
with Philip about a claim of inheritance. The Land-
grave's whole position was hi jeopardy ; for bigamy, by
the law of the Empire, was a serious offence. Luther
heard now with indignation that the ' necessity ' to which
Philip had thought himself justified in yielding had been
exaggerated. The latter, on the other hand, finding con-
cealment no longer possible, wished to announce his mar-
riage publicly, and defend it. He went so far as to
imagine that even if the allies should renounce him he
might still procure the favour and consideration of the
Emperor. Unpleasant and very painful discussions arose
between him, John Frederick, and Duke Henry of
Saxony.

Meanwhile, the day was now approaching for the con-
ference at Hagenau. Melancthon was sent there too by
the Elector. But on reaching Weimar on June 13, where
the prince was then staying, he suddenly fell ill, and it
seemed as if his end was close at hand. He was oppressed
with trouble and anxiety about the wrongdoing of the
Landgrave. The Elector himself wrote reproachfully to
Philip, saying that ' Philip Melancthon was disturbed with
miserable thoughts about him,' and he now lay between
life and death. Luther was sent for by the Elector from
Wittenberg. He found the sick man lying in a state of uncon-

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 511

sciousness and seemingly quite dead to the world. Shocked
at the sight, he exclaimed, ' God help us ! how has Satan
marred this vessel of Thy grace ! ' Then the faithful,
manly friend fell to praying God for his precious com-
panion, casting, as he said, all his heart's request before
Him, and reminding Him of all the promises contained in
His own Word. He exhorted and bade Melancthon to be
of good courage, for that God willed not the death of a
sinner, and he would yet live to serve Him. He assured
him he would rather now depart himself. On Melancthon' s
gradually showing more signs of life, he had some food
prepared for him, and on his refusing it said, ' You really
must eat, or I will excommunicate you.' By degrees the
patient revived in body and soul. Luther was able to
inform another friend, ' We found him dead, and by an
evident miracle he lives.'

Luther, after this, was taken to Eisenach by his prince,
to advise him on the news which he expected to receive
there from Hagenau. At Eisenach he and the chancellor
Briick had an earnest consultation with envoys from Hesse.
Against these, both Luther and Briick insisted that the pro-
ceedings which had taken place between Philip and the
theologians in respect to his marriage should be kept as
secret as a confession, and that Philip must be content to
have his second marriage regarded, in the eyes of the world
and according to the law, as concubinage. He must make
up his mind, therefore, to parry, as best he could, the ques-
tions which were being noised abroad about him, with
vague statements or equivocations. He would then incur
no further personal danger. But any attempt to brazen it
out would inevitably land him in confusion and embarrass-
ment, and only increase and continue the damage done to
the Evangelical cause by this affair.

The Diet at Hagenau made no further demand on
Luther's activity. It was there resolved to take in hand again,
at another meeting to be held at Worms late in the autumn,

512 LUTH£R AND THE PROTESTANTS.

and after further preparation, the religious and ecclesiastical
questions at issue. Peaceably-disposed and competent men
were to be appointed on both sides for this purpose. Thus
Luther was now at liberty to leave Eisenach towards the
end of July, and return home, dissatisfied, as he wrote to
his wife, with the Diet at Hagenau, where labour and
expense had been wasted, but happy in the thought that
Melancthon had been restored from death to life.

At Worms the proceedings, in which Melancthon and
Eck took a prominent part, were further adjourned to a Diet
which the Emperor purposed to hold in person at Eatisbon
early in 1541. Here, on April 27, a debate was opened on
religion.

Luther entertained very slender expectations from all
these conferences, considering the long-ascertained opinions
of his opponents. He pointed to the innocent blood which
had long stained the hands of the Emperor Charles and
King Ferdinand. Still, during the Diet at Worms, the
thought arose in his mind that, if only the Emperor were
rightly disposed, a German Council might actually result
from that assembly. He saw his enemies busy with
their secret schemes of mischief, and feared lest many of his
comrades in the faith, such as the Landgrave Philip, might
treat too lightly the matter, which was no mere comedy
among men, but a tragedy in which God and Satan were the
actors. He rejoiced again, however, that the falsehood and
cunning of his enemies must be brought to nought by their
own folly, and that God Himself would consummate the great
catastrophe of the drama. And in regard to the fear we
have just mentioned, he declared that he, at any rate,
would not suffer himself to be dragged into anything
against his own conviction. ' Rather,' said he, ' would I
take the matter again on my own shoulders^ and stand
alone, as at the beginning. We know that it is the cause
of God, and He will carry it through to the end ; whoever
will not go with it, must remain behind.'

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 513

Between the Diets of Worms and Eatisbon he entered
in 1541, with all his old severity, and with a violence
even beyond his wont, into a bitter correspondence which
had just then begun between Duke Henry of Brunswick -
Wolfenbiittel, a zealous Catholic, and morally of ill re-
pute with friend and foe, on the one side, and John
Frederick and the Landgrave Philip, the heads of the
Schmalkaldic League, on the other. He published against
Duke Henry a pamphlet ' Against Hans Worst.' The Duke
had taunted him with having allowed himself to call his
own sovereign Hans Wurst. Luther assured him, in
reply, that he had never given this name to a single man,
whether friend or foe ; but now applied it to the Duke, be-
cause he found it meant a stupid blockhead who wished
to be thought clever and all the time spoke and acted like
a simpleton. But he was not content with calling him a
blockhead ; he represented him as a profligate man, who,
while libelling the princes and pretending to be the cham-
pion of God's ordinances, himself practised open adultery,
committed acts of violence and insolent tyranny, and incited
men to incendiarism in his opponents' territories. He
would let the Duke scream himself hoarse or dead with his
calumnies against John Frederick and the Evangelicals,
and simply answer him by saying, ' Devil, thou liest !
Hans Worst, how thou liest ! 0, Henry Wolfenbiittel, what
a shameless liar thou art ! Thou spittest forth much, and
namest nothing ; thou libellest, and provest nothing.' At
the same time this pamphlet of Luther was a literary vin-
dication of the Reformation and Protestantism ; here, said
he, and not in the popedom, was the true, ancient, and original
Christian Church. Luther himself, on reading over his
pamphlet after it was printed, thought its tone against
Henry was too mild ; a headache, he said, must have sup-
pressed his indignation.

Just at this time he had to encounter a fresh and
violent attack of illness. He described it, in a letter to

L L

514 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

Melancthon, who was then at Katisbon, as a ' cold in the
head ; ' it was accompanied not only with alarming giddi-
ness, from which he was now a frequent sufferer, but also
with deafness and intolerable pains, forcing tears from his
eyes, something unusual with him, and making him call
on God to put an end to his pain or to his life. A copious
discharge of matter from his ear, which occurred in Passion
Week, gave him relief ; but for a long while he continued
very weak and suffering. To his prince, who sent his
private physician to attend him, he wrote on April 25,
thanking him, and adding, ' I should have been well con-
tent if the dear Lord Jesus had taken me in His mercy
from hence, as I am now of little more use on earth.' He
attributed his recovery to the intercessions which Bugen-
hagen had made for him in the Church.

Whilst he was still feeling his head thus full of pain
and unfit for work, he was called upon to give his opinion
on the preparations for the religious conference at Eatisbon,
and afterwards upon its results.

Bright prospects seemed now to be opening for the victory
of the Gospel. Men of understanding and really desirous of
peace had for once been commissioned, by the Catholics
as well as by the Protestants, to conduct the debate.
The chief actors were no longer an Eck, though he, too,
was one of the collocutors, but the pious, gentle, and
refined theologian Julius von Pflug, and the electoral
counsellor of Cologne, Gropper, who vied with him in an
earnest desire for reform and unity. Contarini also was
there, as the Papal legate — a man influenced by purely
religious motives, and a convert to the deeper Evangelical
doctrine of salvation. Melancthon and Butzer were also
there. The questions of most importance from the Evan-
gelical point of view were first dealt with — namely, those
which related, not to the external system and authority
of the Church, but to man's need of, and the way to obtain,
salvation, to sin, grace, and justification. And it wrag

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 515

now unanimously confessed that the faithful soul is sustained
solely by the righteousness given by Christ ; and for His
sake alone, and not for any worthiness or works of its own,
is justified and accepted by God.

Never before, and never since, have Protestant and
Catholic theologians approached each other so nearly, nay,
been so unanimous, on these fundamental doctrines, as on
that memorable day. And the Catholics, in this, distinctly
left the ground of mediaeval scholasticism, and went over
to that of the Evangelicals. How distinctly this was done
will be apparent to any one who compares the propositions
accepted at the Conference of Eatisbon with the Catholic
reply to the Augsburg Confession of 1530.

Nevertheless, we do not find that Luther felt particularly
elated by the news from Eatisbon. The formula which
embodied their agreement seemed to him a ' roundabout
and patched affair.' In connection with faith, as the
only means of justification, too much, he thought, was said
of the works which must spring from it ; in connection
with the justification given to the faithful through Christ,
too much was said of the righteousness which each Christian
must strive to attain. He, too, had always taught and
demanded both works and righteousness. But the present
arrangement of clauses seemed to him calculated to lessen
and obscure again the primary importance of Christ and
of Faith, as the sole means of salvation. And we see
what objection was uppermost in his mind, in his allusion
to Eck, who also was obliged to subscribe the formula.
Eck, said Luther, would never confess to having once
taught differently to now, and would know well enough
how to adopt the new tenets to his old way of thinking.
They were putting a patch of new cloth upon an old gar-
ment, and the rent would be made worse. (Matt. ix. 16.)

Luther was spared, however, a decision as to the ac-
ceptance or non-acceptance of an agreement. For among
the Catholic Estates of the Empire he found, so far as he

ll2

5i6 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

had followed the debate of the Diet, too strong an oppo-
sition to hope for real union. Moreover, the collocutors
themselves were unable to agree when they came to further
questions, as, for example, the Mass and Transubstantiation ;
they still shipwrecked, therefore, on those points which
were of the most vital importance for the external glorifica-
tion of the priesthood and the Church, and the surrender
of which would have meant the sacrifice of a dogma already
ratified by a Conciliar decree.

On June 11 an embassy from Eatisbon appeared before
Luther in the name of those Protestant states which were
most zealous for unity. Prince John of Anhalt was at
their head. Luther was requested to declare his concur-
rence with what had been done, and assist them in giving
permanent effect to the articles agreed to at the Conference,
and arranging some peaceful and tolerant compromise with
regard to those points on which agreement had been im-
possible. Luther was quite prepared to acquiesce in such
toleration, provided only the Emperor would permit the
preaching of the articles referring to the doctrine of salva-
tion, leaving it open to the Protestants to continue their
warfare of the Word on the points still remaining in dispute.
The Emperor, however, would only sanction those articles
on the understanding that a Council should finally decide
upon them, and that, in the meantime, all controversial
writings on matters of religion should cease. By the Catholic
Estates at the Diet they were strenuously opposed. Luther's
own opinion remained substantially the same as before —
namely, that any trust or hopes were vain, unless their
enemies gave God the honour due to Him, and openly
confessed that they had changed their teaching. The
Emperor must see and acknowledge that within the last
twenty years his Edict had been the murder of many pious
people.

The Conference accordingly remained fruitless. The
Diet, however, did not close without achieving an important

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 51-7

result for the Protestants ; for the Emperor granted them,
at their request, the Beligious Peace of Nuremberg.

The main reason that induced Charles so far to tolera-
tion and leniency was the trouble with the Turks. With
regard to these, Luther now addressed himself once more
to his countrymen with words of earnestness and weight.
He published an ' Exhortation to prayer against the Turks,'
teaching and warning his readers to regard them as a
scourge of God, and make war against them as God com-
manded. From this time also dates his hymn

Lord, shield us with Thy Word, our Hope,
And smite the Moslem and the Pope.

When a tax was levied for the war with the Turks, Luther
himself begged the Elector not to exempt him with his
scanty goods. He would gladly, he said, if not too old and
too infirm, ' be one of the army himself.' In 1542 he
brought out for his countrymen a refutation of the Koran,
written in earlier days, that they might learn what a
shameful faith was Mahomed's, and not suffer themselves
to be perverted, in case by God's decree they should see
the Turks victorious, or even fall into their hands.

5i8

CHAPTEE VI.

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES OF PROTESTANTISM.

1511-44.

The Reformation, against which the Emperor had so re-
peatedly to promise his interference, and with which he
was compelled to seek for a peaceful understanding, con-
tinued meanwhile to gain ground in various parts 01
Germany.

Luther hailed with especial joy its victory in the town
of Halle, which had formerly been a favourite seat of the
Cardinal Albert and the chief scene of his wanton extrava-
gances, and where now one of Luther's most intimate
and most learned friends from Wittenberg, Justus Jonas,
was installed as reformer and Evangelical pastor. Here
the final impetus was given to the movement, among the
mass of the population, of whom the large majority had
long espoused the cause of Luther, by those money diffi-
culties which played such a serious and grievous part in
the life of Albert. When, in the spring of 1541, the town
was called on to pay taxes to the amount of 22,000 gulden,
to defray the Cardinal's debts, the citizens made the pay-
ment conditional on their Council appointing an Evan-
gelical preacher. Jonas was accordingly invited to the
town, and received at once, on his arrival, a regular
appointment through the magistracy and a committee oi
the congregation. In Passion Week, when Luther was
recovering from his illness and Albert had to attend the
Diet at Ratisbon, Jonas for the first time took his place in
the principal church in the town, then recently rebuilt

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 519

in the pulpit which the Archbishop had had erected with
elaborate carvings in stone. Soon after the two other
churches in the town received Evangelical preachers.
The general regulation of Church matters was entrusted
to Jonas, and remained under his control. Luther,
however, supported his friend with his advice, and con-
tinued on terms of trusted intimacy with him till his
death. He did not conceal his joy that the ' wicked old

Fig. 45. — Jonas. (From a portrait by Cranach, in his Album
at Berlin, 1543.)

rogue,' Albert, should have had to live to see this, and
praised God for upholding His judgment upon earth. The
collection of countless and wonderful relics with which the
Cardinal, twenty years before, had sought to carry on the
traffic in indulgences, so hateful to Luther, he now wished
to exhibit in like manner at Mayence, his town of residence
Thereupon Luther, in 1542, published anonymously, but
with the evident intention of being recognised as its author,
a ' New Paper from the Rhine,' which announced to German

520 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

Christendom a series of new, unheard-of relics, collected by
his Highness the Elector, such as a piece of the left horn
of Moses, three tongues of flame from his burning bush,
&c, and lastly a whole drachm of his own true heart and
half an ounce of his own truthful tongue, which his High-
ness had added as a legacy by his last will and testament.
The Pope, said Luther, had promised to anyone who should
give a gulden in honour of the relics, a remission for ten
years of whatever sins he pleased. Contempt of this kind
was all that Luther found the exhibition deserved. Albert
remained silent.

About the same time the Elector John Frederick under-
took a novel, important, though a dangerous, and to Luther
an objectionable step, in connection with a bishopric then
vacant. The Bishop of Naumburg had died. The Chapter
of the Cathedral, with whom lay the election of his suc-
cessor, were accustomed to guide their choice by the wish
of the Elector, as their territorial sovereign. They now
elected, without waiting to hear from John Frederick, who
had seceded from Catholicism, the distinguished Julius von
Pflug. The Elector, on the contrary, was anxious, as his
privilege was hurt by this neglect, to nominate a bishop of
his own choice, and, moreover, a member of the Augsburg
Confession. His Chancellor, Briick, protested earnestly
against this step, and Luther could not refrain from en-
dorsing his remonstrance. If the common herd of Papists,
he said, had been content to look on and see what had been
done to priests and monks, they and the Emperor would
not care to see the same things done with the Episcopate.
The Elector thought this pusillanimous; he wished to
be bolder and more spirited than Luther. It was a pity
only that his pious zeal lacked the more circumspect
judgment of his advisers, and that the interests of his own
authority were also concerned. He declined even to accept
the advice of the Wittenberg theologians, who suggested
that, at all events, the bishopric should be given to the

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 521

eminent prince of the Empire, George of Anhalt, but chose
Nicholas von Amsdorf — a man of better promise, not, indeed,
solely from his theological principles, but as being likely
to be more dependent on his territorial sovereign, though
perhaps, as an unmarried man and a member of the
nobility, less repugnant than any other Protestant theo-
logian to the Catholics. On January 18, 1542, the Elector
brought him in solemn state to Naumburg before the
chapter there assembled.

Luther was glad, nevertheless, to see an Evangelical
bishop. He took care to introduce him in Evangelical
manner. According to the Catholic doctrine, as is well
known, the Episcopate is transmitted from the Apostles by
the act of consecration, with the laying on of hands and
anointing, which can only be done by one bishop to another,
and only a bishop can then consecrate priests or the clergy.
The Eeformers would easily have been able to continue
this so-called Apostolical succession through the Prussian
bishops who went over to them. But, as they never
acknowledged the necessity of this with regard to the inferior
clergy, neither did they with regard to the new bishop.
Luther himself consecrated Amsdorf on January 20, together
with two Evangelical superintendents of the neighbourhood,
and the principal pastor and superintendent of the Evange-
lical congregation at Naumburg, with prayer and the laying
on of hands, in the presence of the various orders and a
multitude of people from the town and district assembled in
the Cathedral. The congregation were first informed that an
honest, upright bishop had now been nominated for them
by their sovereign and his estates in concert with the clergy,
and they were called upon to express their own approval by
an Amen, which was thereupon given loudly in response.
In this manner at least it was sought to comply with a rule
especially enjoined by Cyprian : namely, that a bishop
should be elected in an assembly of neighbouring bishops
and with the consent of his own congregation. Luther

52:

LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

gave an account of the ceremony in a tract, entitled
' Example of the way to consecrate a true Christian
bishop.'

Bruck's apprehensions meantime were only too well
founded. The complaints raised against this consecration
weighed heavily with even the more moderate opponents of the

Fig. 46. — Amsdokf. (From an old woodcut.)

Reformation, and especially with the Emperor. It was at the
same time very evident that, as we have elsewhere observed,
the Elector, good Churchman as he was by disposition, fre-
quently displayed too little energy in regard to the general
relations and interests of his Church. Thus the arrange-
ments required for the bishopric remained neglected, and

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 523

the new bishop was furnished with a most inadequate
maintenance. Luther complained that the Electoral Court
undertook great things, and then left them sticking in the
mire. Moreover, among many of the temporal lords, even
on the Protestant side, there were signs of spiteful jealousy
and suspicion against the honours and advantages enjoyed
by their theologians. Luther himself proceeded therefore
with the utmost possible caution. He even declined once
a present of venison from his friend Amsdorf, in order not
to give occasion for calumny by the ' Centaurs at Court ; '
though, as he said, they themselves had devoured every-
thing, without any prickings of conscience. ' Let them,'
he wrote to Amsdorf, ' guzzle in God's name or in any
other.'

Scarcely had the Elector's instalment of the bishop
(1542) awakened these bitter feelings of resentment, when a
war threatened to break out between the Elector and his
cousin and fellow-Protestant, Duke Maurice of Saxony,
the successor of his late father Henry — a war which would
have imperilled more than anything else the position of the
Protestants in the Empire, and which stirred and disquieted
Luther to his inmost soul.

Between the ducal, or Albertine, and the Electoral, or
Ernestine lines of the princely house of Saxony, various
rights were in dispute, and among them, in particular,
those of supreme jurisdiction over the little town of Wurzen,
belonging to the bishopric of Meissen. When now the
Bishop of Meissen refused to let the subsidy, levied at
Wurzen for the war against the Turks, be forwarded to the
Elector, the latter, in March 1542, quickly sent thither
his troops. Maurice at once called out his own troops
against him. Both continued to arm, and prepared to
fight. Luther thereupon, in a letter of April 7, intended
for publication, appealed to them and their Estates in terms
of heartfelt Christian fervour and perfect frankness. He
reminded them of the Scriptural admonition to keep peace ;

524 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

of the close relationship of the two princes as the sons ol
two sisters; of their noble birth; of their subjects, the
burghers and peasants, who were so closely intermingled
by marriage that the war would be no war, but a mere
family brawl; furthermore, of the petty ground of their
fierce contention, just as if two drunken rustics were
fighting in a tavern about a. glass of beer, or two idiots
about a bit of bread ; of the shame and scandal for the
Gospel ; and of the triumph of their enemies and the devil,
who would rejoice to see this little spark kindle into a con-
flagration. If either of the two, instead of using force,
would declare himself content with what was just and right,
whether it were his own Elector or the Duke, Luther for his
part would assist him with his prayers, and he might then
trust himself with confidence against aggression, and leave
spear and musket to the children of discontent. He told
the others that they had incurred the ban and the vengeance
of God ; nay, he advised all who had to fight under such an
unpeaceful prince to run from the field as fast as they
could.

The Landgrave Philip, who had hitherto, on account of
his second marriage, continued somewhat on strained terms
with John Frederick, brought about at this critical moment
a peaceful understanding between him and Maurice.
The young duke, however, burned with an ambition which
longed to satisfy itself, even at the expense of his cousin and
other Protestant princes, and his power, moreover, was far
superior to the Elector's. Luther augured evil for the
future.

The Reformation was now accepted in the territory also
of Duke Henry of Brunswick. The Landgrave Philip and
John Frederick had taken the field together against him,
on account of his having attacked the Evangelical town
of Goslar and sought defiantly to execute against it a sen-
tence, in connection with ecclesiastical matters, which had
threatened it from the Imperial Chamber, but was sus-

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 525

pended by the Emperor. This war against ' Henry the
Incendiary ' Luther considered just and necessary, the ques-
tion being one of protecting the oppressed. Wolfenbiittel,
whose fortress the Duke boasted to be impregnable, speedily
succumbed on August 13, 1542, to the fate of war and the
boldness of Philip. Luther saw with triumph how the
fortress which, it was reputed, could stand a six years'
siege, had fallen in three days by the help of God. He
hoped only that the conquerors would be humble and give
the glory of the exploit to God. They then occupied the
land, the prince of which fled, and proceeded to establish
the Evangelical Church, in accordance with the general
wish of the population.

Maurice of Saxony, who still strenuously adhered to the
Evangelical confession and to his rights as protector of the
Church, not only continued the reformation commenced in
the Duchy by his father, but succeeded in extending it
peacefully to the bishopric of Merseburg. The chapter
there decided, in 1544, on his nomination, to elect to the
vacant see his young brother Augustus, who, not being
himself an ecclesiastic, delegated at once his episcopal
functions to George of Anhalt, Luther's pious-minded friend.
Luther in the summer of the following year consecrated
him, in the same manner as x\msdorf, together with several
superintendents, and with Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and Jonas.

Events far greater and more important were occurring
in the archbishopric of Cologne. Here an Archbishop at
once and Elector, the aged, worthy Hermann of Wied,
had resolved, from his own free conviction, to undertake
a reformation on the basis of the Gospel. In 1543 he
invited Melancthon for this purpose from Wittenberg.
Melancthon's fellow-labourer was Butzer, who had the re-
putation of always allowing himself to be carried too far by
his zeal for general unity in the Church, and at the same
time, in regard to the doctrine of the Sacrament, even as
accepted by the Wittenberg Concord, of preferring a more

526 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

vague conception of his own. Luther, however, promoted
the undertaking with thanks to God, himself furthered Me-
lancthon'e going, assured him of his entire confidence, and
Learned from him with joy of the Archbishop's uprightness,
penetration, and constancy. In like manner, the Bishop of
Minister also began to attempt a reformation, in conformity
with the wishes of his Estates.

The Emperor at length, who since 1542 had been again
at war with France, and who needed therefore all the as-
Bistance that his German Estates could give him, displayed
at a now Diet at Spires, in 1544, more gracious considera-
tion to the Protestants than he had ever done before. In
the Imperial Recess he promised not only to endeavour to
bring about a general Council, to be assembled in Germany,
but undertook, since the meeting of such a Council was still
uncertain, to convoke another Diet, which should itself deal
with the religion in dispute. In the meantime, he and the
various Estates of the Empire would consider and prepare a
scheme for Christian unity and a general Christian reforma-
tion. The Archbishop Albert, now wholly embittered against
the Reformation, had issued a warning, after the Diet of 1541,
against any agreement to hold a Council on German soil,
as the Protestant poison would here have too powerful an
influence ; in a national German Council he foresaw the
threatening danger of a schism. The resolutions passed
at Spires brought down severe reproaches from the Pope
against the Emperor. What particularly scandalised his
Christian Holiness was that laymen- aye, laymen, who
supported the condemned heretics— were to sit as judges .in
matters concerning the Church and the priesthood.

Protestantism, both in its extent and power, had now
reached a point of progress in the German Empire which
seemed to offer a possibility of its becoming the religion of
tin great majority of the nation, and even of this majority
being united. Charles V., nevertheless, kept his eyes steadily
fixed on his original goal — nay, he probably felt himself

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 527

nearer to it than ever. By his concessions he obtained an
army, which enabled him in the September of that year tc
conclude a durable peace with King Francis, stipulating, aa
before, but secretly, for mutual co-operation for the restora-
tion of Catholic unity in the Church. The next thing to
be done was to persuade the Pope at length to convene a
Council, which should serve this object in the sense in-
tended by the Emperor, and then to enforce by its authority
the final subjection of the Protestants.

This possibility of a final triumph of Protestantism
might have been counted on with hope, if only that breath
of the Spirit which had once been stirred by the Eeformer
and had already responded to his efforts had remained in
full force and vigour in the hearts of the German people ;
and if the new Spirit, thus awakened, had really penetrated
the masses, or, at least, the influential classes and high
personages who espoused the new faith,, and had purified
and strengthened them to fight, to work, and to suffer.
But Luther complained from the very first, and more and
more as time went on, how sadly this Spirit was wanting
to assist him in proclaiming the Gospel and combating the
anti- Christian system of Borne. Thus he again complained,
when hearing of what had happened at Cologne, at Minister,
and at Brunswick, that ' much evil and little good happens
to us ; ' he adapted to his own Church community the
proverb, ' The nearer Borne, the worse the Christian,' as
well as the words of the prophets, lamenting the iniquity
of Jerusalem, the holy city. In his zeal he reproached the
Evangelical congregations even more severely than his
Catholic and Popish opponents would ever have ventured
to reproach them, inasmuch as their own moral position,
to say the least, was not a whit better. But against the
former, his own brethren, Luther had to complain of base
ingratitude to God for the signal benefits He had vouch-
safed them. Thus the peasantry, in particular, he taxed
again and again with their old selfish and obstinate indif-

528 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

ference and stupidity ; the burghers with their luxury and
service of Mammon ; and his fellow-countrymen in general
with their gluttony and their coarse and carnal appetites. It
pained him most to see these sins prevail among his nearest
fellow-townsmen and followers, his Wittenbergers ; and he
lashed out with all his force against the students whom,
as a class, he saw addicted to unchastity and to ' swinish
vices,' as he called them. The authorities, in his opinion,
were far too unmindful of their high appointment by God,
of which he had taken such pains to assure them. When
Church discipline came to be really introduced and made
more stringent, he foresaw quite well that it would only touch
the peasants, and not reach the upper classes. Among the
great nobles at Court, especially at Dresden, but also at
that of the Elector, he found ' violent Centaurs and greedy
Harpies,' who preyed upon the Reformation and disgraced
it, and in whose midst it was difficult — nay, impossible —
even for an honest, right-minded ruler to govern as a true
Christian. He had ahead}7, and especially in these latter
years, been in conflict with lawyers, including some of well-
recognised conscientiousness, such as his colleague and
friend Schurf, about many questions in which they declared
themselves unable to deviate from theories of the canon
or even the Roman law, which he considered unchristian
and immoral. He declared it, for example, to be an insult
to the law of God that they should insist so" strongly on
the obligation of vows of marriage, made by young people
in secret and against their parents' will. So far from
anticipating the triumph of the Evangelical religion, while
such was the condition of Germans and German Protes-
tants, he predicted with anxiety heavy punishment for his
country, and declared that God would assuredly cause the
confessors of the Gospel to be purged and sifted by calamity.
Just at that time, when a decisive moment was ap-
proaching for the great ecclesiastical contest in Germany,
Luther felt himself constrained to rend asunder once more

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 529

the bond of peace and mutual toleration which had been
established with such trouble between himself and the Swiss
Evangelicals. In doing so, he had seen no reason either
to change or conceal his old opinion about Zwingli. The
Swiss, on the other hand, offended by Luther's utterances,
took, in a manner, their honoured teacher and reformer
under their protection ; from which Luther concluded that
they still clung to all his errors. A lurking distrust of
Luther had never been wholly dispelled among them.
Luther heard, moreover, of corrupting influences still exer-
cised by the Sacramentarians outside Switzerland. A letter
reached him to that effect from some of his adherents at
Venice, whose complaints of the mischievous results of the
Sacramental controversy among their fellow-worshippers
ascribed that controversy to the continued influence of
Zwinglianism. In August 1543 he wrote to the Zurich printer
Froschauer, who had presented him with a translation of
the Bible made by the preacher of that town, saying briefly
and frankly that he could have no fellowship with them,
and that he had no desire to share the blame of their per-
nicious doctrine ; he was sorry ' that they should have
laboured in vain, and should after all be lost.' Even in
a scheme of reformation which Butzer, with Melancthon,
had prepared for Cologne, he now discovered some sus-
picious articles about the Sacrament, to which a criticism
of Amsdorf had drawn his notice ; they passed over, it
appeared, Luther's declaration, already agreed on, about
the substantial presence of Christ's Body in the Sacra-
ment, or merely ' mumbled it,' as was Luther's expression.
Nay, he heard it said that even Wittenberg and himself
would not adhere to his doctrine on this point. Occasion,
indeed, was given for this remark by the circumstance that
the ancient usage of the Elevation of the Host, which,
though connected with the Catholic idea of sacrifice, had
nevertheless been hitherto retained, though interpreted in
another sense, was now at length abolished at Wittenberg.

M M

530 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

After much anger and discontent, Luther broke out, in
September 1544, with the tract, ' Short Confession of the
Holy Sacrament.' He had nothing to do with any new
refutation of false teachers — these, he said, had already
been frequently convicted by him as open blasphemers —
but simply to testify once more against the ' fanatics and
enemies of the Sacrament, Carlstadt, Zwingli, (Ecolam-
padius, Schwenkfeld, and their disciples,' and once and
for all to renounce all fellowship with these lost souls.

Alarming reports were spread about attacks being
also meditated by Luther against Butzer and Melancthon.
Melancthon himself trembled ; he seriously feared he,
should be compelled to retire into exile. But not a word
did Luther say against Butzer, beyond calling him, as he
did now, a chatterbox. Against Melancthon we find no-
where, not even in Luther's letters to his intimate
friends, a single harsh or menacing expression from his
lips. He maintained his confidence in him, even in
respect to the later proceedings in the Church. When
urged to publish a collection of his Latin writings, he long
refused to do so, as he says in the preface to his edition of
1545, because there were already such excellent works on
Christian doctrine, such as, in particular, the ' Loci Com-
munes ' of Melancthon, which its author had recently re-
vised. It must be regretted that Melancthon, at moments
like these, which must have caused him pain, did not open
his heart with more freedom and courage to the friend
whose heart still beat with such warm and unchanging
affection for himself.

Luther never, till the day of his death, bestowed much
care or calculation on the immediate consequences of his
acts and of the work to which he felt himself called and
urged by God, and which certainly brought out in strong
relief the individuality of his nature. While committing,
as he did, the cause to God alone, he kept steadily in view
the ultimate goal to which God was surely guiding it — nay,

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 531

that goal was immediately before his eyes. His confident
belief in the near approach of the last day, when the Lord
would solve all these earthly doubts and difficulties, and
manifest Himself in the perfect glory and bliss of His
kingdom, remained in him unaltered from the beginning of
his struggle to the end of his labours. We recognise in
this belief the intensity of his own longings, wrestlings, and
strivings for this end, as also the sincerity of his own con-
viction, little as the days of which we are now speaking,
so busy with events of every kind, corresponded with the
time ordained by God. Luther stretched out his view and
aspirations beyond this world, all the time that he was
teaching Christians again how to honour the world in the
moral duties assigned to them, and to enjoy its blessings
and benefits with thankfulness to God. ' No man knoweth
the day or the hour ' — of this he constantly reminded them,
and warned them against idle speculations. But his hopes,
nevertheless, the still rested on the nearness of the end.
These hopes he expressed with peculiar assurance in a small
Latin tract, written during these later years of his life, in
which he treats of Biblical chronology, and further of the
epochal years in the history of the world. In referring,
for example, to the wide-spread theory, originating with
the Jews, of a great Week of six thousand years, to be fol-
lowed by the final and everlasting Day of Best, he sought
with much ingenuity of reasoning to prove that of those
six thousand years probably only half would be accom-
plished. Since now, according to his chronology, the year
1,540 was the 5,500th year of the world, the end was bound
to be at hand — nay, was already overdue — when his little
book appeared in 1541. Yet, whatever were his views on
this point, he never, like so many others, allowed himself
to be drawn by such hopes and desires into illusions dan-
gerous in practice.

This year passed by without any further or greater
literary labour on his part.

MM 2

532 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

In addition to this continued polemic against the pope-
dom and false teachers, we must not omit to mention some
characteristic controversial writings, provoked from him
by his indignation at the attacks on Christianity by Jews,
nay, by their seduction of many Christians. As early as
1538, a strange rumour of a ' Jewish rabble ' in Moravia —
a country rich in sectaries— having induced Christians to
accept the Mosaic law, had called forth from him a public
' Letter against the Sabbathers.' He launched out with
vehemence against them in 1543 in some further tracts,
inveighing mainly against the dirty insults and savage
blasphemies which the brazen-faced Jews dared to employ
towards Christ and Christians, and also against the usurers,
in whose toils the Christians were ensnared. He declared
even that their synagogues, the scene of their blasphemies
and calumnies, should be burnt, and they themselves com-
pelled to take to honest handicraft, or be hunted from the
country.

In the grand and beautiful labour of his life, the
German translation of the Bible, he was busily occupied
until his death. After the second chief edition had appeared,
in 1541, he endeavoured to improve, at least in some
points, those which followed in 1543 and 1545. He medi-
tated also revising and further improving the most important
of his sermons, which have been left to posterity. After
having undertaken this task in 1540 with a number of
them, he caused three years later the ' Summer-Postills,'
which Roth had previously edited and brought out, to be pub-
lished in a new form by his colleague Cruciger. This work
was now completed by the addition of his sermons on the
Epistles.

We have already seen how earnestly, even before the
great end should come, Luther longed for his eternal rest,
and for release from the struggles and labours of his earthly
life, and the burden of his bodily suffering. He spoke of
his death with calmness but with deep earnestness, and,

PROGRESS AND INTERNAL TROUBLES. 533

indeed, with a touch of humour which pained those who
heard him speak, or read his writings. Thus, when in
March 1544 the Elector's wife, Sybil, asked him 'anxiously
and diligently ' about his own health and that of his wife
and children, he answered : ' Thank God, we are well, and
better than we deserve of God. But no wonder, if I am
sometimes shaky in the head. Old age is creeping on me,
which in itself is cold and unsightly, and I am ill and
weak. The pitcher goes to the well until it breaks. I
have lived long enough ; God grant me a happy end, that
this useless body may reach His people beneath the earth,
and go to feed the worms. Consider that I have seen the
best that I shall ever see on earth. For it looks as if evil
times were coming. God help his own. Amen.'

534

CHAPTEK VII.
luther's later life : domestic and personal details.

Frequently as Luther complained of his old age and ever-
increasing weakness, lassitude, and uselessness, his writings
and letters give evidence not only of an indomitable power
and unquenchable ardour, but also, and often enough, of
those cheerful, merry moods, which rose superior to all his
sufferings, disappointments, and anger. He himself de-
clared that his many enemies, especially the sectaries, who
were always attacking him, always made him young again.
The true source of his strength he found in his Lord and
Saviour, Whose strength is made perfect in weakness, and
to "Whom he clung with a firm and tranquil faith. To
this, indeed, we must add one particularly favourable
influence, in regard to his life and calling, which had been
awakened since his marriage. In speaking of his family,
his wife, and his children, he is always full of thanks to
God ; his heart swells with emotion, and he breathes amid
his heated labours and struggles a fresh and bracing air.
Just as, during the Diet of Augsburg, he had pointed out
encouragingly to the Elector the happy Paradise which God
had allowed to bloom for him in his little boys and girls,
so he himself was permitted to experience and enjoy this
Paradise at home. In his domestic no less than in his
public life he saw a vocation marked out for him by God ;
not, indeed, as if he, the Eeformer, had here any peculiar
path of life, or exceptional duties to perform, but so that
in that holy estate ordained for all men, however despised
by arrogant monks and priests, and dishonoured by the

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE.

535

Fig. 47. — Luthek. (From a portrait by Cranach, in his Album,

at Berlin.)

5J6 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

sensual, he felt himself called on to serve God, as was the
duty of all men and all Christians alike, and to enjoy the
blessings which God had given him.

Five children were now growing up. The eldest, John,
or Hanschen (Jack), was followed, during the troublous
days of 1527, by his first little daughter, Elizabeth. Eight
months after, as he told a friend, she already said good-bye
to him, to go to Christ, through death to life ; and he was
forced to marvel how sick at heart, nay, almost womanish,
he felt at her departure. In May 1529 he was comforted
to seme extent by the birth of a little Magdalene or Lenchen
(Lena). Then followed the boys : Martin in 1531, and
Paul in 1533. The former was born only a few days— if
not the very day— before the feast of St. Martin, and the
birthday of his father ; hence he received the same name.
His son Paul he named in memory of the great Apostle, to
whom he owed so much. At his baptism he expressed the
hope that ' perhaps the Lord God might train up in him a
new enemy of the Pope or the Turks.' The youngest child
was a little daughter, Margaret, who was born in 1534.

His family included also an aunt of his wife, Magdalene
von Bora. She had been formerly a nun in the same
cloister as her niece, where she had filled the post of head-
nurse. She lived among Luther's children like a beloved
grandmother. It was she whom Luther meant by the
* Aunt Lena,' of whom he wrote to his little Hans in 15 30
saying, ' Give her a kiss from me ; ' and when in 1537 he
was able to travel homewards from Schmalkald, where he
had been in such imminent peril of death, he wrote to his
wife : ' Let the dear little children, together with Aunt
Lena, thank their true Father in Heaven.' She died,
probably, shortly afterwards. Luther comforted her with
the words : ' You will not die, but sleep away as in a cradle,
and when the morning dawns, you will rise and live for
ever.'

At this time Luther had two orphan nieces living

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE.

537

538

LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

with him, Lene and Else Kaufmann of Mansfeld, sisters of
Cyriac, whom we found with him at Coburg, and also a young
relative, of whom we know nothing further than that her name
was Anna. Lene was betrothed in 1538 to the worthy trea-
surer of the University of Wittenberg, Ambrosius Berndt, and
Luther gave the wedding. He used also from time to time
to have some young student nephews at his house.

When his boys grew up and the time came for them to

Fig. 49.— The " Luther-House " (previously the Convent), before
its recent restoration.

learn, he had a resident tutor for them. For his own
assistance he engaged a young man as amanuensis ; thus
we find Yeit Dietrich with him at Coburg in this capacity.
We hear afterwards of a young pupil— indeed, of two or
more — who lived with Dietrich at Luther's house. This
seems, however, to have somewhat overtaxed his wife ; in
the autumn of 1534 Dietrich left his house on that
account.

Luther, like other professors, used to take several

LUTHER'S LATER L1EE.

539

students for payment to his table. Among these there
were men of riper years who were eager, nevertheless, to
share in the studies at Wittenberg, and, above all things,
to make his acquaintance. Besides this, his house was
open to a number of guests, theologians and others, of high
or low degree, who called on him in passing through the
town.

The dwelling-place of this large and growing household

Fig. 50.— Luther's Room.

was a portion of the former Convent. The Elector John
Frederick had assigned it to Luther for his own. The
house, which had not been completed when the Reforma-
tion began, was still unfinished when Luther went there,
and it needed many improvements. The present richer
architectural features of the building date from a very
recent restoration. It stood against the town wall, and
was protected by the Elbe. His own small study looked
out in this direction, and formed a gable above the

54o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

water of the moat; though, as he complained in 1530,
it was threatened with alterations for military purposes,
and perhaps during his lifetime fell a prey to them. Only
one of the larger rooms of the house, situated in front, has
been preserved in the recollection of posterity, and is now
railed Luther's room. It was probably the chief sitting-
room of the family.

The young couple possessed at first a very slender
maintenance. Neither of them had any private means.
When, in 1527, Luther was lying apparently on his death-
bid, he had nothing to leave his wife but the cups, which
had been given him as presents, and it happened that he
was obliged to pawn even these to find money for their
immediate wants.

By degrees, however, his income and property in-
creased. His salary as professor at the University (he
received no honorarium for his lectures) wTas raised on his
marriage by the Elector John from 100 to 200 gulden, and
John Frederick added 100 gulden more — the value of a
gulden at that time being equal to about 16 marks of the
present German money. He received, also, regular pay-
ments in kind. Now and then he had a special present
from the Elector, such as a fine piece of cloth, a cask of
wine, or some venison, with greetings from his Highness.
In 1536 John Frederick sent him two casks of wine,
saying that it was that year's growth of his vineyards, and
that Luther would find how good it was viien he tasted it.
Luther's share of his father's property was 250 gulden,
which he was to be paid later in small instalments by his
brother James, who was heir to the real estate. In 1539
Bugenhagen brought him from Denmark an offering of
100 gulden, and two years afterwards the Danish king gave
him and his children an allowance of 50 gulden a year.
Luther never troubled himself much about his expenses,
and gave with generous liberality what he earned. His wife
kept things together for the household, managed it with

LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 541

business-like energy and talent, and tried to add to their
income.

They enlarged their garden by buying some more strips
adjoining it, as well as a field. In 1540 Luther purchased
for 610 gulden from a brother of his wife, who was in needy
circumstances, the small farm of Zulsdorf or Zulsdorf,
between Leipzig and Borna — it must not be confounded
with another village of the same name. The market at
Wittenberg being usually very poorly furnished, his wife
sought to supply their domestic wants by her own economy.
She planted the garden with all sorts of trees, among these
even mulberry-trees and fig-trees, and she cultivated also
hops; and there was a small fish-pond. This little pro-
perty she loved to manage and superintend in person. At
Wittenberg she brewed, as was then the custom, their own
beer, the Convent being privileged in that respect. We hear
of her keeping a number of pigs, and arranging for then-
sale. Luther incidentally .makes mention of a coachman
among his other servants. Finally, in 1541, Luther pur-
chased a small house near his residence at the Convent,
fearing that he would have to give up the latter entirely
for the work of fortification, and thus be prevented from
leaving it to his wife. He was only obliged in ten years to
pay off a portion of the purchase money.

In this happy married life and home the great Reformer
found his peace and refreshment ; in it he found his voca-
tion as a man, a husband, and a father. Speaking from
his own experience he said : ' Next to God's Word, the
world has no more precious treasure than holy matrimony.
God's best gift is a pious, cheerful, God-fearing, home-
keeping wife, with whom you may live peacefully, to whom
you can entrust your goods, and body, and life.' He speaks
of the married state, moreover, as a life which, if rightly
led, is full to overflowing of good works. He knows, on
the other hand, of many ' stubborn and strange couples,
who neither care for their children, nor love each other

542 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

from their hearts.' Such people, he said, were not human
beings ; they made their homes a hell.

In his language about this life and his own conduct hi
it, there is no trace of sentimentality, exaggerated emotion,
or artificial idealism. It is a strong, sturdy, and, as many
have thought, a somewhat rough genuineness of nature,
but at the same time full of tenderness, purity, and fervour ;
and with it is combined that heartfelt and loyal devotion
to his Heavenly Creator and Lord, and to His Will and
His commands, which marked the character of Luther to
the last.

With regard to his children, Luther had resolved from
the moment of their birth to consecrate them to God, and
wean them from a wicked, corrupt, and accursed world.
In several of his letters he entreats his friends with great
earnestness to stand godfather to one of his children, and to
help the poor little heathen to become a Christian, and pass
from the death of sin to a holy and blessed regeneration.
In making this request of a young Bohemian nobleman,
then staying in his house, on behalf of his son Martin, he
grew so earnest that, to the surprise of all present, his
voice trembled ; this, he said, was caused by the Holy
Spirit of God, for the cause he was pleading was God's,
and it demanded reverence. And yet, in the simple,
natural, innocent, and happy ways of children he recog-
nised the precious handiwork of God and His protecting
Hand. He loved to watch the games and pleasures of his
little ones ; all they did was so spontaneous and so natural.
Children, he said, believe so simply and undoubtedly that
God is in Heaven and is their God and their dear Father,
and that there is everlasting life. On hearing one day one
of his children prattling about this life and of the great joy
in Heaven with eating, and dancing, and so forth, he said,
' Their life is the most blessed and the best ; they have
none but pure thoughts and happy imaginations.' At the
sight of his little children seated round the table, he called

LUTHER'S LATER LIEE. 543

to mind the exhortation of Jesus, that we must ' become as
little children ; ' and added, ' Ah ! dear God ! Thou hast
done clumsily in exalting children— such poor little simple-
tons—so high. Is it just and right that Thou shouldst
reject the wise, and receive the foolish ? But God our
Lord has purer thoughts than we have ; He must, there-
fore, refine us, as said the fanatics ; He must hew great
boughs and chips from us, before He makes such children
and little simpletons of us.'

In what a childlike spirit Luther understood to talk to
his children is shown by his letter from Coburg to his little
Hans, then fourteen years old. He himself taught them
to pray, to sing, and to repeat the Catechism. Of his little
daughter Margaret he could tell one of her godfathers how
she had learnt to sing hymns when only four years
old. His hymn ' From the highest Heaven I come,' the
freshest, most joyful, most childlike song that has ever
been heard from children's lips at Christmas, he composed
as a father who celebrated that joyous festival with his own
children. It appeared first in the year 1535. He might
well, after the manner of old Festival plays, have let an
angel step in among them, who in the opening verses
should bring them the good tidings in the Gospel, to which
they should answer with ' Therefore let us all be joyful.'
The words • Therefore I am always joyful, Free to dance
and free to sing, ' call to mind an old custom of accompany-
ing the Christmas hymn with a dance.

Luther warned against all outbursts of passion and undue
3e verity towards children, and carefully guarded himself
against such errors, remembering the bitter experiences ol
his own childhood in that respect. Bat he could be angry
and strict enough when occasion "required ; he used to say
he would rather have a dead son than a bad one.

There was no really good school at Wittenberg for his
boys, and Luther himself could not devote as much time to
them as they required. He took a resident tutor for them,

544 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

a young theologian. His boy John nevertheless gave some
trouble with his teaching and bringing up. His father,
contrary to his own wishes, seems to have been too weak,
and his mother's fondness for her first-born seems to have
somewhat spoilt him. Luther gave the boy over afterwards
to his friend Mark Crodel, the Eector of the school at Torgau,
whom he held in high respect as a grammarian, and as a
pedagogue of grave and strict morals.

His favourite child was little Lena, a pious, gentle,
affectionate little girl, and devoted to him with her whole
heart. A charming picture of her remains, by Cranach, a
friend of the family. But she died in the bloom of
early youth, on September 20, 1542, after a long and
severe illness. The grief he had felt at the loss of his
daughter Elizabeth was now renewed and intensified.
When she w7as lying on her sick-bed, he said, ' I love her
very much indeed ; but, dear God, if it is Thy will to take
her hence, I would gladly she were with Thee.' To Magdalene
herself he said, ' Lena, dear, my little daughter, thou
wouldst love to remain here with thy father ; art thou
willing to go to that other Father ? ' ' Yes, dear father,'
she answered; 'just as God wills.' And when she was
dying, he fell on his knees beside her bed, wTept bitterly,
and prayed for her redemption, and she fell asleep in his
arms. As she lay in her coffin, he looked at her and
exclaimed, ' Ah ! my darling Lena, thou wilt rise again and
shine like a star — yea, as the sun ; ' and added, ' I am
happy in the spirit, but in the flesh I am very sorrowful.
The flesh will not be subdued : parting troubles one above
measure ; it is a wonderful thing to think that she is
assuredly in peace, and that all is well with her, and yet to
be so sad.' To the mourners he said, ' I have sent a saint
to Heaven : could mine be such a death as hers, I would
welcome such a death this moment.' He expressed the
same sorrow, and the same exultation in his letters to his
friends. To Jonas he wrote : ' You will have heard that

LUTHER S LATER LIFE.

545

my dearest daughter Magdalene is born again in the ever-
lasting kingdom of Christ. Although I and my wife ought
only to thank God with joy for her happy departure,

Fig. 51.— Luther's Daughter • Lene.' (From Cranacli's portrait.)

whereby she has escaped the power of the world, the flesh,
the Turks, and the devil, yet so strong is natural love that
we cannot bear it without sobs and sighs from the heart,

N N

546 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

without a bitter sense of death in ourselves. So deeply
printed on our hearts are her ways, her words, her gestures,
whether alive or dying, that even Christ's death cannot
drive away this agony.' His little Hans, whom his sick
sister longed to see once more, he had sent for from Torgau
a fortnight before she died : he wrote for that purpose to
Crodel, saying ' I would not have my conscience reproach
me afterwards for having neglected anything.' But when
several weeks later, about Christmas-time, under the in-
fluence of grief and the tender words which his mother had
spoken to him, a desire came over the boy to leave Torgau
and live at home, his father exhorted him to conquer his
sorrow like a man, not to increase by his own the grief of
his mother, and to obey God, who had appointed him,
through his parents' direction, to live at Torgau.

The care of the children and of the whole household
fell to the share of Frau Luther, and her husband could
trust her with it in perfect confidence. She was a
woman of strong, ruling, practical nature, who enjoyed hard
work and plenty of it. She served her husband at all
times, after her own manner, with faithful and affectionate
devotion. He must often have felt grateful, amidst his
physical and mental sufferings, and the violent storms and
temptations that vexed his soul, that a helpmate of such a
sound constitution, such strong nerves, and such a clever,
sensible mind should have fallen to his share.

Luther lived with her in thankful love and harmony ;
nor have even the calumnies of malicious enemies been able
to cast a shadow of doubt upon the perfect concord of his
married life. In his ' Table Talk ' he says of her : ' I am,
thank God, very well, for I have a pious, faithful wife, on
whom a man may safely rest his heart.' And again he
said once to her, ' Katie, you have a pious husband, who
loves you ; you are an empress.' In words now grave, now
humorous, he told her of his tender love for her ; and how
trustful and open-hearted were their relations to each other

LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 547

we gather from the way in which he mocks and occasionally
teases her for her little weaknesses. In later life and in his
last letters he calls her his ' heartily beloved housewife '
and his ' darling,' and he often signs himsalf ' your love '
and * your old love,' and again ' your dear lord.' Still he
said frankly and quietly that his original suspicion that
Catharine was proud was well-founded. In some of his
letters he speaks of her as his ' lord Katie ' and his
' gracious wife,' and of himself as her ' willing servant.'
Once he declared that if he had to marry again, he would
carve an obedient wife out of stone, as he despaired of
finding obedience in wives. He spoke also of the talkative-
ness of his Katie. Eeferring to her loving but over-anxious
care for him on his last journey, he called her a holy, careful
woman. From her thrift and energy she gained from him
the nicknames of Lady Zulsdorf, and Lady of the Pigmarket ;
thus one of his last letters is addressed -to 'my heartily
beloved housewife, Catharine, Lady Luther, Lady Doctor,
Lady Zulsdorf, Lady of the Pigmarket, and whatever else
she may be.'

The ' careful ' Catharine was not permitted to check the
kind liberality of her husband. His friend Mathesius tells
us, of their early married life, ' A poor man made him a
pitiful tale of distress, and having no cash with him, Luther
came to his wife — she being then confined — for the god-
parents' money, and brought it to the poor man, saying, ' God
is rich, He will supply what is wanted.' Afterwards, how-
ever, he grew more careful, seeing how often he was imposed
upon. ' Eogues,' he said, ' have sharpened my wits.' An
example of how particular, nay anxious, he was never
even to let it seem that he sought for presents or other
profit for himself, was given in his letter to Amsdorf,
declining a gift of venison. He wrote once to the Elector
John, who had sent him an offering : ' I have unfortunately
more, especially from your Highness, than I can con-
scientiously keep. As a preacher, it is not fitting for me to

N N 2

54^ LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

enjoy a superfluity, nor do I covet it ; . . . therefore 1
beseech your Highness to wait until I ask of you.' In 1539,
when Bugenhagen brought to him the hundred gulden from
the King of Denmark, he wished to give him half of it, for
the service Bugenhagen had rendered him during his
absence. For his office of preacher in the town church he
never received any payment ; the town from time to time
made him a present of wine from the council-cellar, and
lime and stones for building his house. For his writings
he received nothing from the publishers. Against over-
anxious cares and troubles, and setting her heart too much
on worldly possessions, he earnestly cautioned his wife, and
insisted that amid the numerous household matters she
should not neglect to read the Bible. Once in 1535 he
promised her fifty gulden if she would read the Bible
through, whereupon, as he told a friend, it became a ' very
serious matter to her.'

Luther frequently assisted his wife in her household.
He was very fond of gardening and agriculture, and we
have seen how he sent commissions to friends for stocking
his garden at Wittenberg. On one occasion, when going to
fish with his wife in their little pond, he noticed with joy
how she took more pleasure in her few fish than many a
nobleman did in his great lakes with many hundred draughts
of fishes. In 1539 he had to order a chest at Torgau for
his * lord Katie,' for their store of house-linen. Of the
handsome and elaborate way iw which Catharine thought
of ornamenting the exterior of their house — the home of
her illustrious husband — a fine specimen remains in the
door of the Luther-haus at Wittenberg. Luther wvote, by
her wish, to a friend at Firna in 1539, pastor Lauterbach,
about a ' carved house-door,' for the width of which she sent
the measurement. The door, carved in sandstone, and
bearing the date 1540, has on one side Luther's bust and
on the other his crest, and below are two small seats, built
there according to the custom of the times.

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE.

549

In view of his approaching death, Luther wished, in
1542, to provide for his devoted wife by a will. He left her
for her lifetime and absolute property the little farm of Zuls-

m,P" J'jji / aj , ' m i i j • ! ; » / rr>

xjoo r^v

Fig. 52. — Door of Luther's House at Wittenberg.

dorf, the small house at Wittenberg (already mentioned),
and his goblets and other treasures, such as rings, chains,
&c , which he valued at about 1,000 gulden. In doing so, he

550 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

thanked her for having heen to him a ' pious, true wife at
all times, full of loving, tender care towards him, and for
having borne to him and trained, by God's blessing, five
children surviving.' And he wished to provide therewith
that she 'must not receive from the children, but the
children from her ; that they must honour and obey her,
as God hath commanded.' He further bade her pay off
the debt which was still owing (probably for the house),
amounting to about 450 gulden, because, with the exception
of his few treasures, he had no money to leave her. In
making this provision he no doubt considered that, accord-
ing to the law, the inheritance of a married woman who
had formerly been a nun might be disputed, together with
the legitimacy of her marriage. Luther did not wish to
bind himself in his will to legal forms. He besought the
Elector graciously to protect his bequest, and concluded his
will with these proud words :

' Finally, seeing I do not use legal forms, for which I
have my own reasons, I desire all men to take these words
as mine — a man known openly in heaven, on earth, and in
hell also, who has enough reputation or authority to be
trusted and believed better than any notary. To me, a
poor, unworthy, miserable sinner, God, the Father of all
mercy, has entrusted the Gospel of His dear Son, and has
made me true and faithful therein, and has so preserved
and found me hitherto, that through me many in this
world have received the Gospel, and hold me as a teacher
of the truth, despite of the Pope's ban, of emperor, king,
princes, priests, and all the wrath of the devil. Let tfiem
believe me also in this small matter, especially as this is
my hand, not altogether unknown. In hope that it will be
enough for men to say and prove that this is the earnest,
deliberate meaning of Dr. Martin Luther, God's notary and
witness in his Gospel, confirmed by his own hand and seal.'

The will is dated the day of the Epiphany, January 6,
1542, and was witnessed by Melancthon, Cruciger, and

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 551

Bugenhagen, whose attestations and signatures appear
below. After Luther's death, John Frederick immediately
ratified it.

As regards his servants, Luther was particularly careful
that they should have nothing to complain of against him,
for the devil, he said, had a sharp eye upon him, to be able
to cast a slur upon his teaching. To those who served him
faithfully, he was ever gentle, grateful, and even indulgent.
There was a certain Wolfgang, or Wolf Sieberger, whom
he had taken as early as 1517 into his service at the con-
vent— an honest but weak man, who knew of no other
means of livelihood. Him Luther retained in his service
throughout his life, and tried to make some provision for
his future. He once sought, as we have seen, to practise
turning with him, but of this nothing further is related.
He loved, too, to joke with him in his own hearty manner.
When, in 1534, Wolf built a fowling-floor or place for
catching birds, he reprimanded him for it in a written
indictment, making the ' good, honourable ' birds them-
selves lodge a complaint against him. They pray Luther
to prevent his servant, or at least to insist upon Wolf
(who was a sleepy fellow), strewing grain for them in the
evening, and then not rising before eight o'clock in the
morning ; else, they would pray to God to make him catch
in the day-time frogs and snails in their stead, and let fleas
and other insects crawl over him at night ; for why should
not Wolf rather, employ his wrath and vindictiveness
against the sparrows, daws, mice, and such like ? When a
servant named Eischmann parted from him, in 1532, after
several years of hard work, Luther sent word to his wife from
Torgau, where he was then staying with the Elector, to dis-
miss him ' honourably,' and with a suitable present. ' Think,'
he wrote, ' how often we have given to bad men, when
all has been lost ; so be liberal, and do not let such a good

fellow want Do not fail; for a goblet is there. Think

from whom you got it. God will give us another, I know,'

552 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

His guests valued highly his company and conversation,
especially those men who came from far and near to visit
him. Several of them have recorded sayings from his lips
on these occasions. Luther's ' Table Talk,' which we pos-
sess now in print, is founded for the most part on records
given by Veit Dietrich and Lauterbach just mentioned,
who before his call to Pirna in 1539, when deacon at
Wittenberg, was one of Luther's closest friends and his
daily guest. These memorials, however, have been elabor-
ated and recast many times, by a strange hand, in an
arbitrary and unfortunate manner. A publication of the
original text, from which recently a diary of Lauterbach,
of the year 1538, has already appeared, may now be looked
for. Last, but not least, we have to mention John Mathesius,
who, after having been a student at Wittenberg in 1529,
and then rector of the school at Joachimsthal, returned to
study at Wittenberg from 1540 to 1542, and obtained the
honour which he sought for, of being a guest at Luther's
table. Deeply impressed as he was by his intercourse with
the Reformer, he described his impressions to his congre-
gation at Joachimsthal, when afterwards their pastor, in
addresses from the pulpit, which were printed, and gave
them a sketch of Luther's life, with numerous anecdotes
about him. He thus became Luther's first biographer,
and, from his personal intimacy with his friend, and his
own true-heartedness, fervour, and genuineness of nature,
he must ever remain endeared to the followers and admirers
of the great Reformer.

Mathesius tells us, indeed, how Luther used often to sit
at table wrapt in deep and anxious thought, and would
sometimes keep a cloister-like silence throughout the meal.
At times even he would work between the courses, or at
meals or immediately after, dictate sermons to friends who
had to preach, but who wanted practice in the art. But
when once conversation was opened, it flowed with ease and
freedom, and, as Mathesius says, even merrily. The friends

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE.

553

used to call Luther's speeches their ' table-spice.' His
topics varied according to circumstances and the occasion
— things spiritual and temporal ; questions of faith and

Fig. 53. — Mathesius. (From an old woodcut.)

conduct ; the works of God and the deeds of man ; events
past and present ; hints and short practical suggestions for
ecclesiastical life and office ; and apophthegms of worldly

$54 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

wisdom; all enriched with proverbs of every kind and
German rhymes, which Luther had a great aptitude in
composing. Jocular moods were mingled with deep gravity
and even indignation. But in all he said, as in all he did,
he was guided constantly by the loftiest principles, by the
highest considerations of morality and religious truth, and
that in the simple and straightforward manner which was
his nature, utterly free from affectation or artificial effort.

In these his discourses, it is true, as in his writings and
letters, nay, sometimes in his addresses from the pulpit,
expressions and remarks fell occasionally from his lips
which sound to modern ears extremely coarse. His was a
frank, rugged nature, with nothing slippery, nothing
secretly impure about it. His friends and guests spoke of
the ' chaste lips ' of Luther : ' He was,' says Mathesius, ' a
foe to unchastity and loose talk. As long as I have been
with him I have never heard a shameful word fall from his
lips.' It was a great contrast to the coarse indecencies
which he denounced with such fierce indignation in the
monks, his former brethren, as also to the more subtle
indelicacies which were practised in those days by so many
elegant Humanists of modern culture, both ecclesiastics
and laymen.

Luther's conversation was also remarkable for its
freedom from any spiteful or frivolous gossip, of which even
at Wittenberg there was then no lack. Of such scandal-
mongers, who sought to pry out evil in their neighbours,
Luther used frequently to say, ' They are regular pigs,
who care nothing about the roses and violets in the garden,
but only stick their snouts into the dirt.'

After dinner there was usualty music with the guests
and children ; sacred and secular songs were sung, together
with German and sometimes old Latin hymns.

Luther also had a bowling-alley made for his young
friends, where they would disport themselves with running
and jumping. He liked to throw the first ball himself, and

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 555

was heartily laughed at when he missed the mark. He
would turn then to the young folk, and remind them in his
pleasant way that many a one who thought he would do
better, and knock down all the pins at once, would very
likely miss them all, as they would often have to find in
future their life and calling.

In his own personal relations towards God, Luther
followed persistently the road which he saw revealed by
Christ, and which he pointed out to others. He never lost
the consciousness of his own unworthiness, and therefore
unholiness. In this consciousness he sought refuge, with
simple and childlike faith, in God's love and mercy, which
thus assured him of forgiveness and salvation, of victory
over the world and the devil, and of the freedom wherewith
a child of God may use the things of this world. He clung
fondly to simple, childlike forms of faith, and to common
rites and ordinances. Every morning he used to repeat
with his children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and a psalm. ' I do this,' he says in one of
his sermons, ' in order to keep up the habit, and not let the
mildew grow upon me.' He took part faithfully in the
church services ; he who was wont to pray so unceasingly
and fervently in his own chamber declared that praying in
company with others soothed him far more than private
prayer at home.

Lofty, nay proud as was the self-assurance he expressed
in his mission, and though possessed, as Mathesius says,
of all the heart and courage of a true man, yet he was
personally of a very plain and unasserting manner :
Mathesius calls him the most humble of men, always
willing to follow good advice from others. Like a brother
he dealt with the lowliest of his brethren, while mixing at
the same time with the highest in the land with the most
perfect and unconscious simplicity. Troubled souls, who
complained to him how hard they found it to possess the
faith he preached, he comforted with the assurance that it

5$6 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

was no easier matter for himself, and that he had to pray
God daily to increase his faith. His saying, ' A great
doctor must always remain a pupil,' was meant especially
for himself. The modesty which made him willing, even
in the early days of his reforming labours, to yield the first
place to his younger friend Melancthon, he displayed to the
end, as we have seen in reference to Melancthon' s principal
work, the ' Loci Communes.' Whenever he was asked for
a really good book for theological studies and the pure
exposition of the gospel, he named the Bible first and then
Melancthon' s book. During the Diet at Augsburg we heard
how highly he esteemed the words even of a Brenz, in
comparison with his own. Touching Melancthon, we must
add an earlier public utterance of Luther's, dating from
1529 : ' I must root out,' he said, ' the trunks and stems.
.... I am the rough woodman who has to make a path,
but Philip goes quietly and peacefully along it, builds and
plants, sows and waters at his pleasure.' He said nothing
of how much others depended on his own power and inde-
pendence of mind, not only as regarded the task of making
the path, but in the whole business of planting and working,
and how Melancthon only stamped the gold which Luther
had dug up and melted in the furnace. The later years of
his life were embittered by the conviction, gradually forced
upon him, that his former strength and energy had deserted
him. His remarks on this subject seem often exaggerated,
but they were certainly meant in all seriousness : he felt as
he did, because the urgent need of completing his task
remained so vividly impressed upon his mind. He wished
and hoped that God would suffer him — the now useless
instrument of His Word — to stand at least behind the doors
of His kingdom. He wrote to Myconius, when the latter
was dangerously ill, saying that his friend must really
survive him : ' I beg this ; I will it, and let my will be done,
for it seeks not my own pleasure, but the glory of God.'
With childlike joy he recognised God's gifts in nature,

LUTHER S LATER LIFE. 557

in garden and field, plants and cattle. This joy finds con-
stant expression in his ' Table Talk,' and even in his ser-
mons. It was chiefly awakened by the beauties of spring.
With sorrow he declares it to be the well-earned penalty of
his past sins that in his old age he should not be able, as
he might do and had need of doing, on account of the
burdens of business, to enjoy the gardens, the bud and
bloom of tree and flower, and the song of the birds. ' We
should be so happy in such a Paradise, if only there were
no sin and death.' But he looks beyond this to another
and a heavenly world, where all would be still more beau-
tiful, and where an everlasting spring would reign and
abide.

Among all the gifts which God has bestowed upon us
for our use and enjoyment, music was to him the most
precious ; he even assigned to it the highest honour next
to theology. He himself had considerable talent for the
art, and not only played the lute, and sang melodiously
with his seemingly weak but penetrating voice, but was
able even to compose. He valued music particularly as
the means of driving away the devil and his temptations,
as well as for its softening and refining influence. ' The
heart,' he said, ' grows satisfied, refreshed, and strength-
ened by music' He noticed, as a wonder wrought by God,
how the air was able to give forth, by a slight movement of
the tongue and throat, guided by the mind, such sweet and
powerful sounds ; and what an infinite variety there was
of voice and language among the many thousand birds,
and still more so among men. Luther's best and most
valued means of natural refreshment, and the recreation of
his mind and body, remained always his intercourse and
friendship with others -with wife and children, with
his friends and neighbours. Such was his own experience,
and so he would advise the sorrowful who sought his coun-
sel in like manner to come out of their solitude. He saw
in this intercourse also an ordinance of Divine wisdom and

558 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

love. A friendly talk and a good merry song he often
declared to be the best weapon against evil and sorrowful
thoughts.

About his own bodily care ancl enjoyment, even with
all his conviction of Christian liberty and his hostility to
monkish scruples and sanctity, he cared very little. He
was content with simple fare, and he would forget to eat
and drink for days amid the press of work. His friends
wondered how such a portly frame could be consistent with
such a very meagre diet, and not one of his hostile con-
temporaries has ever been able to allege against him that
he had belied by his own conduct the zeal with which he
inveighed against the immoderate eating and drinking of
his fellow- Germans ; but he preserved his Christian liberty
in this matter. In the evenings he would say to his pupils
at the supper-table, 'You young fellows, you must drink
the Elector's health and mine, the old man's, in a bumper.
We must look for our pillows and bolsters in the tankard.'
And in his lively and merry entertainments with his friends
the ' cup that cheers ' was always there. He could even
call for a toast when he heard bad news, for next to a
fervent Lord's Prayer and a good heart, there was no better
antidote, he used to say, to care.

His physical sufferings were chiefly confined to the
pains in his head, which never wholly left him, and which
increased from time to time, with fresh attacks of giddiness
and fainting. The morning was always his worst time.
His old enemy, moreover — the stone— returned in 1543
with alarming severity. Some time since an abscess had
appeared on his left leg, which seemed at the time to have
healed. Finding that a fresh breaking out of it seemed to
relieve his head, his friend Katzeberger, the Elector's phy-
sician, induced him to have a seton applied, and the issue
thus kept open. His hair became white. He had long
been speaking of himself as a prematurely old man, and
quite worn out.

LUTHER'S LATER LIFE. 559

In spite of his sufferings he retained his peculiar bearing,
with head thrown back and upturned face. His features,
especially the mouth, now showed more plainly even than
in earlier life the calm strength acquired by struggles and
suffering. The pathos which later portraits have often
given to his countenance is not apparent in the earlier
ones, but rather an expression of melancholy. The deep
glow and energy of his spirit, which even Cranach's pencil
has failed wholly to represent, seems to have found chief
expression in his dark eyes. These evidently struck the
old rector of Wittenberg, Pollich, and the legate Caietan at
Augsburg ; it was with these that, on his arrival at Worms,
the legate Aleander saw him look around him ' like a
demon ' ; it was these that ' sparkled like stars ' on the
young Swiss Kessler, so that he could ' hardly endure their
gaze.' After his death, another acquaintance of his called
them ' falcon's eyes ' ; and Melancthon saw in the brown
pupils, encircled by a yellow ring, the keen, courageous eye
of a lion.

This fire in Luther never died. Under the pressure of
suffering and weakness, it only burst forth when stirred by
opposition into new and fiercer flames. It became, indeed,
more easily provoked in later life, and produced in him an
irritation and restless impatience with the world and all its
doings. His full and clear gaze was fixed on the Hereafter.

q6o

CHAPTER VIII.
luther's last year and death,

The Emperor Charles, after concluding the peace ofCresp)
with King Francis, turned his policy entirely to ecclesiastical
affairs. The Pope could no longer resist his urgent demand
for a Council, and accordingly a bull, of November 1544,
summoned one to assemble at Trent in the following March.
With regard to the Turks, the Emperor sought to liberate
his hands by means of a peaceful settlement and conces-
sions. He entered into negotiations with them in 1545, in
which he was supported by an ambassador from France.
These led ultimately to the result that the Turks left him
in possession, on payment of a tribute, of those frontier
fortresses which he still occupied, and which they had pre-
viously demanded from him, and agreed to a truce for a
year and a half. ' This is the way,' exclaimed Luther, ' in
which war is now waged against those who have been
denounced so many years as enemies to the name of Christ,
and against whom the Piomish Satan has amassed such
heaps of gold by indulgences and other innumerable means
of plunder.'

Meanwhile the Elector John had commissioned his
theologians to prepare the scheme of reformation which was
to be submitted according to the decree of the Diet at
Spires. On January 14. 1545. they sent him a draft compiled
by Melancthon. Luther headed with his own the list of
-natures. It was a last great message of peace from
his hand. The draft set forth clearly and distinctly the
principles of the Evangelical Church ; but expressed a hope

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AXD DEATH. 561

that the bishops of the Catholic Church would fulfil the
duties of their office, and promised them obedience if t

accepted and furthered the preaching of the _ - el in its
purity. This was too moderate for the Elector. His
chancellor Brack, however, assured him that Luther and
the others were agreed with Melancthon, though the docu-
ment bore no evidence of "Doctor Martin's restless spirit.'

Nor did Luther even here insist on that strong expr -
sion of opinion with regard to the Lord's Supper which he
himself gave to the doctrine of Christ's Bodily Presence hi
the Sacrament. They only spoke briefly of the ■ receiving
the true Body and Blood of Christ.' and of the object and
benefit of this reception for the soul and for faith.

But Luther now unburdened his heart with redoubled
energy and pas-ion against the Pope and the Popedom, of
which no mention had been made in the draft. In January
1545 he learned of that Papal letter in which the Holy
Father had protested to his son the Emperor, with pathetic-
indignation, against the decrees of the Diet at Spires.
Luther at first took it seriously for a forgery — a mere
pasquinade — until he was assured by the Elector of the
genuineness of this and another and similar letter, and
thus provoked to take public steps against it. He thought
that, if the brief was genuine, the Pope would sooner wor-
ship the Turks — nay, the devil himself — than ever dream
of consenting to a reform in accordance with God's Word.
Accordingly, he composed his pamphlet ' Against the Pope-
dom at Borne, instituted by the Devil/ In this his ' rest-
Lese spirit1 spoke out once more with all its strength; he
poured out the vials of his wrath in the plainest and most
violent language — more violent than in any of his earlier
writings — airain^t the Antichrist of Eome. The very first
word gives the Pope the title of ' the most hellish Father.'
Luther is not surprised that to him and his Curia the words
1 free Christian German Council " are sheer poison, death,
and hell. But he asks him, what is the use of a Council

o o

562 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

at all if the Pope arrogates to himself beforehand, as his
decrees fulminate, the right of altering and tearing up
its decisions. Far better to spare the expense and trouble
of such a farce, and say, ' We will believe and worship your
hellship without any Councils.' The piece of arch-knavery
practised by the Pope in himself announcing a Council
against Emperor and Empire was, in fact, nothing new.
The Popes from the very first had practised all kinds of
devilish wickedness, treachery, and murder against the
German Emperors. Luther recalls to mind how a Pope
had caused the noble Conradin to be executed with the
sword. Paul III., in his admonition to his 'son' the
Emperor Charles, referred in pious strain to the example
of Eli, the high-priest, who had been punished for not
rebuking his sons for their sins. Luther now points him
to his own, the Pope's natural son, whom the Pope was so
anxious to enrich ; he asks if Father Paul then had nothing
to punish in him. It was well known what tricks Paul
himself, with his insatiable maw, was playing together with
his son with the property of the Church. Further, he puts
before the Pope his cardinals and followers, who forsooth
needed no admonition for their detestable iniquities. But
his dear son Charles, it seemed, had wished to procure for
the German Fatherland a happy peace and unity in reli-
gion, and to have a Christian Council, and, finding he had
been made a fool of by the Pope for four-and-twenty years,
at last to convene a national Council. This was his sin in
the eyes of the Pope, who would like to see all Germany
drowned in her own blood : the Pope could not forgive the
Emperor for thwarting his horrible design. Luther dwells
at length on such reflections in his introduction, and then
says ' I must now stop, for my head is too weak, and I
have not yet come to what I meant to say in this treatise.'
This was the three points, as follow : Whether, indeed, it
was true that the Pope was the head of Christendom ; that
none could judge and depose him ; and that he had brought

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 563

the Holy Roman Empire to the Germans, as he boasted so
arrogantly he had done. On these points he then proceeds
to enlarge once more with a wealth of searching proof. On
the last point we hear him speak once more as a true
German. He wished that the Emperor had left the Pope
his anointing and coronation, for what made him truly
Emperor was not these ceremonies, but the election of the
princes. The Pope had never yielded a hairsbreadth to the
Empire, but, on the contrary, had plundered it immode-
rately by his lying and deceit and idolatry. The book
concludes thus : ' This devilish Popery is the supreme evil
on earth, and the one that touches us most closely ; it is
one in which all the devils combine together. God help us !
Amen.'

Cranach published a series of sketches or caricatures,
controversial and satirical, against the Popedom, some of
which are cynically coarse, one of them representing to his
countrymen the murder of Conradin, the Pope himself be-
heading him, and another a German Emperor with the
Pope standing on his neck. Luther added short verses to
these pictures. But he disapproved of one of Cranach's
caricatures, as insulting to woman.

We have seen already what degree of importance Luther
attached to a Council appointed by the Pope. The Pro-
testants could not, of course, consent to submit to the one
at Trent. On the other hand, their demand that the
Council must be a ' free ' and a ' Christian ' one in their
sense of the terms was an impossibility for the Emperor
and the Catholics ; for it meant not only their independence
of the Pope — which he could never assent to — but also a
free reversion to the single rule and standard of Holy
Scripture, with a possible rejection of tradition and the
decrees of previous Councils. The Emperor thereupon
granted something for appearance sake to the Protestant
States by arranging another conference on religion to be

held at Eatisbon in January 1546. He told the Pope, in

0 0 2

564 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

June 1545, that he could not engage to make war on the
Protestants for at least another year. The Council was
opened in December 1545, without the Protestants taking

any part in it.

While all this was going on, the newly-opened rupture
between Luther and the Swiss remained unhealed. In the
spring of 1545 Bullinger published a clever reply to his
' Short Confession.' It could, however, effect no recon-
ciliation, for, mild as was its language in comparison with
the violence of Luther's, it made too much merit of this
mildness, while, as Calvin, for example, accused the author,
it imputed more to Luther than common fairness justified,
took him to task for his manner of speaking, and contributed
nothing to an understanding in point of dogma. From the
impression produced by this letter upon Luther, fears were
entertained again for Melancthon, who had continued to
m lintain a friendly correspondence with Bullinger ; and
Melancthon himself felt very anxious about the result. But
not one harsh or suspicious or unkind word was uttered by
Luther. He only wished to answer the Zurichers briefly
and to the point, for he had written, he said, quite enough
on the subject against Zwingli and Oecolampadius, and did
not want to spoil the last years of his life with arrogant and
idle chatter. He only inserted afterwards in a series of
theses, with which he replied in the late summer of that
year to a fresh condemnation pronounced against him by
the theologians of Louvain, an article against the Zwin-
glians, declaring that they and all those who disgraced the
Sacrament by denying the actual bodily reception of the true
Body of Christ were undoubtedly heretics and schismatics
from the Christian Church. This doctrinal antagonism was
sufficient even now, when the test of actual war was im-
minent, to keep the Swiss excluded from the League of
Schmalkald.

Luther still continued, in the face of menaces, to trust in
God, his Helper hitherto, and he found in the latest signs of

LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 565

the times still more convincing proof of the End, which
seemed to be at hand. In the miserable oppression of
the Germano-Roman Empire by the Turks he saw a sign of
its approaching downfall, as also in the impotence displayed
by the Imperial Government even in small matters of ad-
ministration. There was no longer any justice, any govern-
ment ; it was an Empire without an Empire; and he rejoiced
to believe that with the end of this Empire the last day — the
day of salvation — was approaching.

But more painful and harassing to him than even the
threats of the Romanists and the attacks upon his teaching,
which his own words, he was convinced, had long since
refuted, was the condition of Wittenberg and the university.
It was a favourite reproach against him of the Catholics
that his doctrine yielded no fruits of strict morality. Not-
withstanding all the rebukes which he had uttered for years,
we hear of the old vices still rampant at AYittenberg the
vices of gluttony, of increasing intemperance and luxury,
especially at baptisms and weddings ; of pride in dress and
the low-cut bodices of ladies ; of rioting in the streets ; of
the low women who corrupted the students ; of extortion,
deceit, and usury in trade ; and of the indifference and in-
ability of the authorities and the police to put down open
immorality and misdemeanours. Things of which there
were growing complaints at that time in the German towns
and universities became intolerable to the aged Reformer,
who had no longer the power to bring his whole influence
to bear upon his own fellow-townsmen.

In the summer of 1545 he was tortured again by his old
enemy the stone. On Midsummer day his tormentor — as
he wrote to a friend — would have done for him had God not
willed it otherwise. ' I would rather die,' he adds, ' than be
at the mercy of such a tyrant.'

A few weeks later he sought refreshment for mind and
body in a journey. He first travelled with his colleague
Cruciger by way of Leipzig to Zeitz, where Cruciger had to

566 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

settle a dispute between two clergymen. On the road he
was cordially received by several acquaintances, and that
did hirn good. At Zeitz he took part in the proceedings.
He was anxious to proceed further, to Merseburg, for his
friend there, George of Anhalt, had seized the opportunity
to send him a pressing invitation, in order to receive
from him his consecration. But the painful experiences
he had made at Wittenberg pursued him on his travels,
and were aggravated by much that he heard about his
own town. On July 28 he wrote from Zeitz to his wife,
saying, ' I should be so glad not to return to Wittenberg ;
my heart is grown cold, so that I don't care about being
there any longer. ... So I will roam about and rather
beg my bread than vex my poor remaining days with the
disorderly doings at Wittenberg, with my hard and precious
labour all lost.' He actually wished that they should sell
the house and garden at Wittenberg, and go and live at
Zulsdorf. The Elector, he said, would surely leave him his
salary at least for one year more, near as he was to the
close of his fast-waning life, and he would spend the
money in improving his little farm. He begged his wife,
if she would, to let Bugenhagen and Melancthon know
this.

The excitement, however, as might be hoped, was only
temporary. To quiet his emotion, the university at once sent
Bugenhagen and Melancthon to him, the Wittenberg magis-
trate sent the burgomaster, and the Elector his private
physician Batzeberger. The Elector also reminded him in
a friendly manner that he ought to have apprised him
beforehand of his intention to take this journey, to enable
him to provide an escort and defray his expenses. The
Wittenberg theologians, sent as deputies to Merseburg, had
now arrived there, and met Luther on August 2, at the
solemn consecration of George. Luther stayed with his
host for a couple of days, during which he preached in the
neighbouring town of Halle, and was here presented by the

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 567

town-council with a cup of gold. This journey improved
his health. After having paid a visit to the Elector, at his
desire, at Torgau, he returned on the 16th of the month to
Wittenberg, where an attempt was now being made to put
down, by an ordinance of police, the immorality he had
denounced.

He now resumed his lectures, in which he was still
busily engaged with the Book of Genesis, and which he
brought at length to an end on November 17. He also
preached at Wittenberg several times in the afternoons, it
being unadvisable for him to do so any longer in the morn-
ings on account of his health. He further occupied himself
in writing a sequel to his first book against the Papacy, and
at the same time meditated a letter against the Sacramen-
tarians.

The autumn of this year brought with it a matter from
Mansfeld, having nothing indeed to do with religion or
doctrine, but which called him away from Wittenberg. The
Counts of Mansfeld had long been quarrelling among them-
selves about certain rights and revenues, especially in
connection with Church patronage. Luther had already
entreated them earnestly in God's name to come to a
peaceful agreement. They now at length agreed so far as
to invite his mediation, and obtained permission from the
Elector, who, however, would rather have seen Luther
spared this trouble. Luther all his life had cherished a
warm and grateful affection for this his early home ; whilst
labouring for his great Fatherland of Germany, he called
Mansfeld his own special fatherland. Wearied as he was,
he resolved to serve his home once more.

At the beginning of October, accordingly, he journeyed
thither with Melancthon and Jonas, but his visit proved in
vain, since the Counts, before he could do anything for
them, were called away to war. He held himself in readi-
ness, however, to make a second attempt.

In the meantime Luther quickly composed another

568 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

pamphlet, with reference to the Duke of Brunswick, who
three years before had been driven from his country by the
Landgrave Philip and the Saxon princes, and had now
suddenly invaded it again, but was defeated and taken
prisoner by the combined forces of the allied princes,
assisted also by the Counts of Mansfeld. At the instigation
of the chancellor Briick, and with the consent of his Elector,
Luther addressed a public letter to the princes and the
Landgrave, and had it printed. In it he warned them not
to allow — as Philip for various reasons seemed inclined
to do — so dangerous a prisoner to go free, and thereby to
tempt God. Behind the Duke he saw the Pope and the
Papists, without whom he would never have been able to
carry on his campaign. They should at any rate wait and
see until the thoughts of hearts should be further revealed.
None the less did he warn the victors against self-exaltation
and arrogance.

Once more he celebrated his birthday in the circle of his
friends, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and some
others. Just before that day a rich present of wine and
fish had arrived from the Elector. Luther was very merry
with his friends, but could not restrain sad thoughts of an
apostasy from the gospel which might follow with many
after his death.

At the conclusion of his lecture on November 17 he said :
* This is the beloved Genesis ; God grant that after me
it may be better done. I can do no more — I am weak.
Pray God that He may grant me a good and happy end.'
He began no new lectures.

At Christmas time, then, and in the depth of cold, Luther
journeyed to Mansfeld with Melancthon. He wished, as he
wrote to Count Albert, to risk the time and effort, notwith-
standing the pressing work he had on hand, in order to lay
himself in peace in his coffin in the place wirere he had
previously reconciled his beloved masters. But his wish was
not to be fulfilled. Anxiety for Melancthon, who was ill,

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH 569

urged him home, though he promised to return. On his
homeward journey, in spite of the continued severity of the
cold, he preached at Halle, concluding his sermon with the
words, ' Well, since it is very cold, I will now end. You have
other good and faithful preachers.'

He had carefully brought his Melancthon home. When
now the new conference on religion was to be held at
Eatisbon, and a Wittenberg theologian was to be sent to it,
he begged the Elector not to employ his friend again for the
' useless and idle colloquy,' especially as there was not a
man among his opponents who was worth anything.
' What would they do,' he wrote, ' if Philip were dead or ill,
as indeed he is — so ill that I rejoice to have brought him
home from Mansfeld. It is his duty henceforth to spare
himself ; he is better employed in his bed than at the
Conference. The young doctors must come to the fore and
take up the word after us.' Of his opponents and their
designs, he said ' They take us for asses, who don't under-
stand their vulgar and foolish attacks.'

He described his own condition, in a letter of January 17,
in these words : ' Old, spent, worn, weary, cold, and with
but one eye to see with.' He must have lost therefore the
sight of one of his eyes, but we know nothing definite
beyond this. He adds, however, that for his age his health
was fairly good.

Melancthon was spared a journey to Eatisbon, as also a
third visit to Mansfeld. Luther ventured the latter, however,
in January. He took with him his three sons, together
with their tutor, and his own servant, that they might become
acquainted with his beloved native home. When, shortly
before, some students at his table heard of a strange and
ominous fall of a large clock at midnight, he said, ' Do not
fear ; this means that I shall soon die. I am weary of the
world, so let us rather part like well-filled guests at a
common inn.'

On the 23rd of the month he left Wittenberg, where on

57o LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

Fig. 54.— Luther in 1546. (From a woodcut of Cranach.)

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 571

the previous Sunday, the 17th, he had preached for the
last time.

He reached Halle on the 25th, and stayed with Jonas.
It was probably then that he brought Jonas as a present
the beautiful white Venetian glass, which is still preserved
at Nuremberg. The Latin couplet is to this effect :

Luther this glass, himself a glass, doth on his friend bestow-
That each himself a brittle glass may by this token know.

Fig. 55. — Jonas' Glass.

TThe date when the portraits of Luther and Jonas, together with the Latin
verses and their translation, were executed, is uncertain, (a) Luther.
(b b) Translation of Luther's verses, (c c) ' Dat vitrum vitro Jonas vitrum
ipse Lutherus : Ut vitro fragili similem se noscat uterque.' (d) Jonas.]

The breaking up of the ice, followed by heavy floods,
detained him at Halle for three days. The very day after
his arrival he preached again. He wrote to his wife telling
her he was cheering himself with good Torgau beer and
Rhine-wine, till the baale had done raging. To his friends,

572 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

however, in company he said, ' Dear friends, we are mighty
good comrades, we eat and drink together ; but we must all
die one day. I am now going to Eisleben ,o help my
masters, the Counts of Mansfeld, to come to terms. Now
I know how the people are disposed ; when Christ wished to
reconcile His heavenly Father with mankind, He undertook
to die for them. God grant that it may be so with me ! '

On the 28th the travellers, who were joined by Jonas,
crossed the dangerous rapids formed by the narrow part of
the river Saale below the Castle of Giebichenstein, near
the town, and thus on the same day reached Eisleben,
where the Counts of Mansfeld, with several other nobles,
were waiting for Luther. An escort of more than a
hundred horsemen in heavy armour accompanied him from
the frontier between the territories of Halle and Mansfeld.
Just before entering the town, however, he was seized with
alarming giddiness and faintness, together with a sharp
constriction of the heart, and much difficulty of breathing.
He himself ascribed this to a chill, having shortly before
walked some distance and then re-entered his carriage in a
perspiration. At the village of Eissdorf, near Eisleben, so
he wrote to his wife on February 1, such a bitter wind
pierced his cap at the back of his head, that he felt as if
his brain were freezing. It was in this letter that he spoke
of her laughingly as Lady Zulsdorf, &c. ' But now,' he
added, i thank God, I am pretty well again, except for the
heartache caused by the beautiful women.' Only three
days after this attack he preached at Eisleben.

Luther was comfortably quartered at the Drachstedt, a
house which had been bought by the town-council, and was
inhabited by the town-clerk Albert.

The business was commenced at once, in the very
house where he was staying. But it was a work of much
trouble and difficulty for Luther. He sought one way after
another to effect a reconciliation. On February 6 he
begged the Elector through Melancthon to send him a

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 573

summons back to Wittenberg, in order to put pressure
on the Counts k) settle their dispute ; and a few days
after he wrote to his wife, saying that he should like to
grease his carriage-wheels and be off in sheer anger, but
concern for his native town prevented him. He was
shocked at the avarice, so ruinous to the soul, which either
party displayed. He was angry also with the lawyers,
for backing up each party to stand so stubbornly on his
imagined rights. He who now ought to have been a lawyer
himself, came among them as a hobgoblin, who checked
their pride by the grace of God.

The multitude of Jews whom Luther met at Eisleben
and thereabouts were also an annoyance and vexation to
him. He disliked to see the Counts give room so far to
men who blasphemed Jesus and Mary, who called the
Christians changelings, and sucked them dry, nay, would
gladly kill them all, if they could. He warned even his
congregation, as a child of their country, not to fall into
their meshes.

Amidst all this business, he found time to preach four
sermons. He partook twice of the sacrament, and con-
fessed and ordained two clergymen.

To his wife, who worried herself constantly about him
and his health, he wrote from Eisleben five times in four-
teen days.1 His language to her, even when he has unplea-

'A facsimile of the longest of these letters, bearing date February 7, runs
as follows: 'Mercy and peace in the Lord. Pray read, dear Katie, the Gospel
of St. John and the' [marginally 'little'] 'Catechism, of which you once declared
that you yourself had said all that it contained. For you wish to disquiet
yourself about your God, just as if He were not Almighty, and able to create
ten Martin Luthers for one old one drowned perhaps in the Saale, or fallen
dead by the fireplace, or on Wolf's fowling-floor. Leave me in peace with
your cares; I have a better protector than you and all the angels. He — my
Protector — lies in the manner, and hangs upon a Virgin's breast. But He Kits
also at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. Rest, therefore, in peac :.
A:nen.

'I think that hell and all the world must now be free of all the devils

574 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

sant news to tell, is always full of affection, heartiness, and
comfort. The humorous way in which he addressed her
we have noticed before. He told her how well he fares
with eating and drinking. He referred her to her
God, in Whose stead she wished to care for him, to the
Bible and the small Catechism, of which she had once
declared that all it contained had been said by her. He

who have come together here to Eisleben, for my sake it seems. So hard
and knotty is this business. There are fifty Jews here too ' [marginally * in
one house 'J , ' as I wrote to you before. It is now said that at RissdorfT,
hard by Eisleben, where I fell ill before my arrival, more than four hundred
Jews were walking and riding about. Count Albert, who owns all the coun-
try round Eisleben, has seized them upon his property, and will have
nothing to do with them. No one has done them any harm as yet. The
widowed Countess of Mansfeld (the Countess Dorothea, widow of Count
Ernest, born Countess of Solms), is thought to be the protectress of the
Jews. I don't know whether it is true, but I have given my opinion in
quarters where I hope it will be attended to. It is a case of Beg, Beg, Beg,
and helping them. For I had it in my mind to-day to grease my carriage
wheels in ird med. But I felt the misery of it too much ; my native home
held me back. I have been made a lawyer, but they will not gain by it.
They had better have let me remain a theologian. If I live and come
among them, I might become a hobgoblin, who would comb down their
pride by the grace of God. They behave as if they were God Himself, but
must take care to shake off these notions in good time before their god-
head becomes a devilhead, as happened to Lucifer, who could not remain
in heaven for pride. Well, God's will be done. Let Master Philip see this
letter, for I had no time to write to him ; and you may comfort yourself
with the thought how much I love you, as you know. And Philip will
understand it all.

• We live here very well, and the town-council gives me for each meal
half a pint of " Reinfall " ' [marginally, ' which is very good '] . ' Some-
times I drink it with my friends. The wine of the country here is also
good, and Naumburg beer is very good, though I fancy its pitch fills my
chest with phlegm. The devil has spoilt all the beer in the world with his
pitch, and the wine with his brimstone. But here the wine is pure, such
as the country gives.

4 And know that all letters you have written have arrived, and to-day
those have come which you wrote last Friday, together with Master Philip's
letters, so you need not be angry.

Sunday after St. Dorothea's Day (7 February) 1546.

' Your loving

' Martin Luther, D.'

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 575

had also dangers to tell her of, which had assailed him
even while thus under her care. A fire chanced to break
out in a chimney near his room ; and on February 9, so he
writes to her, notwithstanding all her care, a stone as long
as a pillow and as thick as two hands, had nearly toppled
down upon his head and crushed him. So he now takes
care to say, ' While you cease not to care for us, the earth
at length might swallow us up, and all the elements destroy
us.'

Luther kept up also at Eisleben his correspondence with

&kz\-***( /y+^P-yt-n /fc^viy

Fig. 56.— Address of Luthek's Letter of February 7.

(' To my beloved housewife, Catharine Lady Luther, Lady Doctor, Lady
of the Pigmarket at Wittenberg ; my gracious wife, bound hand and
foot in loving service.')

Melancthon. He wrote to him three letters, the last testi-
mony of his friendship. A letter to his 'kind, dear housewife,'
and one to Melancthon, his ' most worthy brother in Christ,'
both of February 14, are without doubt the last he ever
wrote. His sick body was well nursed and tended at Eis-
leben. He went to bed early every night, after he had stood
before his window, according to his old habit, in fervent

576 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

prayer. The stone no longer troubled him, hut he was
very weary and worn. His last sermon, on Sunday, Febru-
ary 14, he broke off with the words : ' This and much more
is to be said about the Gospel ; but I am too weak, we will
leave off here.' Most unfortunately for him, he had
omitted to bring with him to Eisleben the applications
used for keeping his issue open, and now it was nearly
closed. He knew that the physicians considered this
extremely dangerous.

At length his efforts to mediate between his masters the
Counts were crowned with success beyond all expectation.
On February 14 a reconciliation was effected upon the chief
points, and the various members of the Counts' families
rejoiced, while the young lords and ladies made merry all
together. ' Therefore,' wrote Luther to Kathe, ' it must be
seen that God is Exavditor precumJ He sent her some
trout as a thankoffering from Countess Albert. He wrote
to her : ' We hope to return home this week, if God will,'

On the 16th and 17th of that month the reconciliation
upon all the points of dispute was formally concluded. The
revenues of churches and schools were fixed upon, and the
latter to this day owe a rich endowment to the arrange-
ments there made. On the 16th Luther says in his ' Table
Talk ' : * I will now no longer tarry, but set myself to go to
Wittenberg and there lay myself in a coffin and give the
worms a fat doctor to feed upon.'

On the morning of the 17th, however, the Counts found
themselves compelled, by Luther's state of health, to en-
treat him not to exert himself any longer with their affairs ;
and so he only added his signature where required. To
Jonas and the Counts' court-preacher Colius, who were
staying with him, he said he thought he should remain at
Eisleben, where he was born. Before supper he complained
of oppression of the chest, and had himself rubbed with
warm cloths. This relieved him, and he left his little room,
going down the staircase into the public room to join the

LUTHER S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 577

party at supper. ■ There is no pleasure,' he said, ' in being
alone.' At supper he was merry with the rest, and talked
with his usual energy on various subjects— now jocular or
serious, now intellectual and pious. But no sooner had he
returned to his chamber and finished his usual evening
prayer than he again became anxious and troubled. After
being rubbed again with warm cloths and having taken a
medicine which Count Albert himself had brought him, he
laid himself down about nine o'clock on a leathern sofa
and slept gently for an hour and a half. On awakening,
he arose, and with the words (spoken in Latin) ' Into Thy
hands I commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me,
Thou God of truth,' went to his bed in the adjoining room,
where he again slept, breathing quietly, till one o'clock.
He then awoke, called his servant, and begged him to heat
the room, though it was quite warm already, and then
exclaimed to Jonas, ' 0 Lord God, how ill I am ! Ah ! I
feel I shall remain here at Eisleben, where I was born and
baptized.' In this state of pain he arose, walked without
assistance into the room which he had left a few hours
before, again commending his soul to God ; and then, after
pacing once up and down the room, lay down once more on
the sofa, complaining again of the oppression on his chest.
His two sons, Martin and Paul, remained with him all
night. They had spent most of the time at Mansfeld with
their relations there, but had now returned to their father
(Hans was still absent), and his servant and Jonas. Colius
also hastened to him, and the young theologian John Auri-
faber, a friend of the two Counts who used to associate with
Luther together with Jonas and Colius. The town-clerk was
there, too, with his wife, also two physicians, and Count
Albert and his wife, who busied herself zealously with
nursing the sick man; and later on came a Count of
Schwarzburg with his wife, who were staying on a visit
with the Count of Mansfeld. The rubbing and application
of warm cloths and the medicines were now of no avail to

p p

578 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

ease Luther's anguish. He broke out into a sweat. His
friends began to feel more happy about him, hoping that
this would relieve him ; but he replied, ' It is the cold
sweat of death ; I shall yield up my spirit.' Then he began
to give thanks aloud to God, Who had revealed to him His
Son, Whom he had confessed and loved, and Whom the
godless and the Pope blasphemed and insulted. He cried
aloud to God and to the Lord Jesus : ' Take my poor
soul into Thy hands ! Although I must leave this body, I
know that I shall be ever with Thee.' He then spoke
words of the Bible, three times uttering the text of St. John
iii. : ' God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.' After Colius had given him one
more spoonful of medicine, he said again, ' I am going,
and shall render up my spirit,' and three times rapidly in
succession he said in Latin, ' Father, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, 0 Lord
God of truth.' From that time he remained quite still,
and closed his eyes, without making any answer when
spoken to by those around him, who were busy with re-
storatives. Jonas and Colius, however, after his pulse had
been rubbed with strengthening waters, said aloud in his
ear : ' Reverend father (Reverende pater), wilt thou stand by
Christ and the doctrine thou hast preached ? ' He
uttered an audible ' Yes.' He then turned upon his right
side and fell asleep. He lay thus for nearly a quarter of
an hour, when his feet and nose grew cold ; he fetched one
deep, even breath, and was gone. It was between two and
three o'clock in the morning of February 18— a Thursday.

The body was laid in a white garment, first upon a bed,
and then in a hastily-made leaden coffin. Many hundreds,
high and low, came to see it. The next morning the face
was painted by an Eisleben artist, and the morning after
that by Lucas Fortenagel of Halle. Fortenagel's portrait
is no doubt a foundation of all those which we find in

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 579

several places under Cranach's name, and which no doubt
really came from Cranach's studio.

The Elector John Frederick at once insisted that the
mortal remains of Luther should rest at Wittenberg. The
Counts of Mansfeld wished at least to pay them the last
honours. After they had been brought, on the afternoon of
the 19th, into the Church of St. Andrew, where a sermon
was preached by Jonas that day, and another by Colius on

Fig. 57.— Luther after Death. (From a picture ascribed to Cranach.)

the following morning, a solemn procession started at noon
on the 20th, with the coffin, for its destination. In front
rode a troop of about fifty light-armed cavalry, with
sons of both the Counts, to accompany the body to its last
resting-place. All the Counts and Countesses, with their
guests, followed as far as the gates of Eisleben, and among
them was a Prince of Anhalt, the magistrates, the school-
children, and the whole population of the surrounding
country.

pp2

580 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

In all the villages on the road the bells tolled, and old
and young flocked to join the procession. At Halle the
coffin was received with great solemnity, and placed for the
night of the 20th in the principal church of the town.
There a cast was taken in wax, which is preserved in the

Fig. 58. — Cast of Luther after Death. (At Halle.)

library of the church ; the original features, however,
having been altered by putting in the eyes and improving
the shape of the mouth. To complete our picture of
Luther's outward appearance, we have in this cast the
remarkably strong brow, which in Cranach's portraits of
Luther often recedes out of all proportion in his upturned

LUTHER'S LAST YEAR AND DEATH. 581

face. The two representations of Luther when dead are of
great value, deeply as it must be lamented that no more
skilful hands than those of the painter of Halle and the
wax-modeller have had the privilege of working upon them.

On the 21st the corpse was taken to Kemberg, after
being received at the frontier of the Electorate by deputies
from the Elector. On the morning of the 22nd it reached
Wittenberg, where it was at once taken to the Castle
Church in solemn procession through the whole length of
the town. It was a long, sad procession. First went the
nobles representing the Elector, then the horsemen from
Mansfeld and their young Counts, and. immediately after
the coffin the widow in a little carriage with some other
gentlewomen. Then followed Luther's sons and his brother
James, with other relatives from Mansfeld ; then the Uni-
versity, the members of the Town Council, and all the
citizens of Wittenberg. In the church Bugenhagen preached
a sermon, and Melancthon, who, on the arrival of the sad
news, had expressed his grief in a charge to the students,
gave a Latin oration as representative of the University.
Then, near the spot where the great Eeformer had once
nailed up his theses, the body was lowered into the grave.

Throughout the whole Evangelical Church arose a cry of
lamentation. Luther was mourned as a prophet of Germany
— as an Elijah who had overthrown the worship of idols and
set up again the pure Word of God. Like Elisha to Elijah,
so Melancthon called out after him, ' Alas ! the chariot of
Israel and the horsemen thereof ! ' On the other hand,
fanatical Papists were not ashamed to insult his very death-
bed with slanders and falsehoods ; even a year before he
died a silly, sensational story of his death was spread about
by them.

Luther throughout his life and labours had never
troubled himself much about the praise or the abuse of men.
After the example of his great teacher St. Paul, he went his
way in honour and dishonour, through evil report and good

582 LUTHER AND THE PROTESTANTS.

report, along the road which he knew to be pointed out from
above. The portrait of his life, plain and unadorned as it
is presented to the present age, will at any rate testify to
the worth of this great man, and thus do something towards
that eternal end for which he was ready to sacrifice his life
and, in the eyes of the world, his honour and his fame.

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